


Kingdom Hearts: The Sea's Reflection

by Mathemagician93



Series: Kingdom Hearts: Seeking Beyond Darkness [1]
Category: Kingdom Hearts (Video Games)
Genre: Boss Fight: Brought to you by Bloodborne, Boss Fight: Xemnas's Gimp, Boss Fights: Brought to you by RWBY, Characters/Relationships/General Tags to be updated as they appear, Cinderella III: A Twist in Time, Do not interrupt the vacations of former supervillains, Elrena and Lauriam were married, Everyone else cares about that more than them, F/M, I need to stop tagging while sleep deprived, Ienzo is a badass over the phone, Is it ethical to keep using lesser Nobodies in combat?, Kairi and Riku actually have families, Kairi faces misogyny and beats it with a giant key, Kairi's own Journey, Let's give some focus to Kairi, Let's pass around Keyblades instead of just swapping Keychains, Letting NPCs help cut down the random enemy hunt quest, Mainly Canon Compliant, Maleficent attacks a Princess of Heart's wedding, Maleficent undoes a Princess of Heart's wedding, Maybe hints of Terra/Aqua?, Multiple Worlds to come, Namine is deadly, Neither has the Author, Nobody gets included in Kingdom Hearts like Gaston, Obligatory "going through the movie" world, Playable Destiny Islands? It's more likely than you'd think, Post Re:Mind, Radiant Garden history lessons, Sea-Salt Family Moves to Twilight Town, SoKai even if Sora doesn't appear, Sora's Mom gets mentioned for the first time in almost two decades, The Chamber of Repose is definitely not a sex dungeon, The Wayfinder Trio sometimes show a little bit of the PTSD they got along the way, The characters have not played Union X, Union X keeps getting involved, World included because Kairi's old VA sang the ending song, pre-limit cut
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-03
Updated: 2021-03-08
Packaged: 2021-03-15 18:02:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 7
Words: 48,488
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29812302
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mathemagician93/pseuds/Mathemagician93
Summary: The Keyblade War is over, and Xehanort has been defeated. But the price of victory was high, and Kairi refuses to accept the final cost. She’s done sitting on the sidelines, and with the support of her friends she’s going to go out there and find the answers she wants.(Takes place between Re:Mind and the Limit Cut Episode. Mainly canon compliant with some slight tweaks).
Relationships: Beast/Belle (Kingdom Hearts), Kairi & Naminé (Kingdom Hearts), Kairi & Riku (Kingdom Hearts), Kairi/Sora (Kingdom Hearts), Prince Charming/Cinderella (Disney)
Series: Kingdom Hearts: Seeking Beyond Darkness [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2191458
Comments: 5
Kudos: 11





	1. Destiny Islands

Kairi knew she had failed as soon as she saw the sun setting over the horizon. After four nights of finding herself in the same place, she had tried to avoid this by simply not falling asleep. She had made it past midnight, but four nights of poor sleep meant she eventually lost the battle. Once again she was sitting on the paopu tree with Sora, with the muffled sounds of their friends enjoying the ‘we-saved-the-worlds’ beach party in the background. Still, that may as well have been taking place on a different world, as Sora’s words drowned out everything.

“Kairi…I’m out of time.”

Even though she knew exactly where this was going and wanted desperately to stop it, Kairi was forced to repeat what she had said on that fateful day.

“What do you mean? I know you’ve been fading a bit ever since we beat Xehanort, but couldn’t we have gotten Yen Sid or Mickey to help? If things were this bad, why didn’t we look for help instead of visiting all of our friends’ worlds?

Sora just gave her a sad smile. “Chirithy called it breaking a nature taboo—I don’t think there was any way out of paying this price. I just wanted a chance to finally share all the worlds with you before I had to go. Goodbye, Kairi.” Sora started fading away as he grabbed her hand, and Kairi felt a tear slide down her cheek. “Just know this, Kairi. I’d happily pay this price a thousand times over for you. You deserve to be happy. I lov—”

Just as it had the past four nights, Sora’s final words were enough to jolt Kairi back into wakefulness, but this time she had had enough of lying around. Sora may have been happy to give himself up to save her, but she definitely didn’t deserve that. Sora had saved the universe three times over as well as saving various individual worlds and people countless times, and he thought she was worth taking himself out of the picture. The only thing special about her was her colossal ability to screw things up. As a Princess of Heart, she should have been a pure light able to ward off the darkness—instead, she had let her home be consumed not once, but twice. She couldn’t even die properly when Destiny Islands fell, and instead had parasitically latched onto the heart of the one person who most deserved the role of savior.

Sora may have sacrificed himself to give her a chance to be happy, but Kairi knew she wouldn’t be able to do that while dealing with all of this guilt. Wallowing around Destiny Islands wouldn’t get her any closer to saving Sora, so it was time to act. Of course, going to search for Sora first meant getting off of this world, so she’d have to make a short stop first. Not wanting to wake her parents, she went to her window instead of her door. A small wave of nostalgia swept over her as she remembered all the times she used to sneak out at night by climbing down the nearby tree, usually to meet up with Sora and Riku. However, this time she had advantages she never had in the past and simply jumped down to the ground. One of the skills that came as part of Keyblade training was the ability to enhance certain physical skills, letting one jump much higher than normal—and more importantly, land safely on the ground after falling from higher places.

Kairi then ran through town towards the outskirts, where Riku was living in his cheap apartment. As expected for the sleepy island world, nobody else was awake, letting Kairi arrive without any distractions. She walked to the door and summoned Destiny’s Embrace to unlock it and let herself inside. The official story was Riku had given her a spare key, but having the magical power to undo any lock meant there was never a need to worry about losing keys. She made it to his door, but this time she just knocked. Letting yourself into someone’s apartment building was one thing, but barging into their room was another. Only now that she was standing outside of Riku’s room did she remember she had an easy way to contact Riku—but she had left her Gummiphone back in her room.

Just as she was about to head back to her apartment, she felt an intense pressure in her heart, as well as a sudden flare of pain across her back. The pressure was familiar, but that didn’t mean it was welcome. She had felt a similar thing back when Destiny Islands had been about to fall to darkness, and it had repeated whenever she got too close to an incarnation of Xehanort. The pain in her back was in a familiar location, where her heart remembered the wound from Xehanort’s Keyblade even if her body didn’t bear the scar. Of course, being friends with Riku meant she was often exposed to darkness and knew it wasn’t dangerous, but this was bigger than anything she’d felt from him before. With a quick flourish of her Keyblade, she unlocked Riku’s door and entered the apartment. A brief scan showed it was empty, but Kairi knew Riku would have preferred her to wake him up if he had been sleeping. The whole reason he was living here was to be able to better handle the duties of a Keyblade Master, and the sudden appearance of a large source of darkness definitely qualified.

If Riku wasn’t here, she only had two options. She could either run back to her apartment and change into her dark-repelling dress, or she could head towards the source of darkness right away. She took a second to pinpoint the source of the darkness, and let out a gasp of shock. It was coming from the direction of the play island—and more importantly, the keyhole for the world. If this were a powerful heartless, she couldn’t afford to take the time to go out of her way. She ran out of the apartment building and to the shore. The docks were further down the coastline, but she didn’t need to take the time to go there. Kairi cast a variant of a Waterga spell that bound her feet to a ball of water and then launched the water towards the play island, sending herself flying across the waves faster than she would be able to row.

However, traveling by spell did have some drawbacks. While she was able to move rapidly across the strait between the main island and the play island, she wasn’t able to adjust her course—even when she saw Riku on the beach directly in her path. She shouted out a warning before jumping off of the orb of water, giving Riku enough time to use his Dark Roll ability to avoid the main brunt of the spell. He still got caught in the splash when the spell exploded on the beach, but other than a look of surprise and wet clothes he wasn’t harmed. He also didn’t look like he had fought any heartless recently, even though Kairi could no longer sense the darkness that had brought her out to the island in the first place.

Kairi sheepishly apologized for her entrance. “Sorry about that, Riku. I sensed a huge darkness over here so I tried to get here as fast as possible, but it’s gone now. Did you take care of it?”

Riku scratched at the back of his neck. “I think I might actually be what you sensed. I was blowing off steam by launching Dark Firagas into the ocean, and I think I might have invented Dark Firaza. I’m sorry for dragging you out of bed.” He was awkwardly avoiding looking at her, and it took a second for Kairi to realize why. While Riku had seen her in pajamas countless times, he hadn’t seen her in the last week—when she had switched her pajama shirt for one of the spare shirts Sora had left at her house. It had helped her get even the smallest amount of sleep, even if it probably didn’t help with the nightmares, but Riku probably wasn’t ready to see the reminder. Still, Kairi wasn’t ready to confront that awkwardness, so she got back to her original reason for seeing Riku.

“I wasn’t in bed anyway, and I’m sorry for the surprise. I was actually at your apartment when I first sensed the darkness. I was wondering if I could use the Gummi Ship for a while. I’m not accomplishing anything here, so I want to go out into the worlds. I figured Mickey would be more likely to send the ship here if you asked instead of me.”

Riku visibly flinched at her request, then took a deep breath before responding. “Kairi, I’ve been wanting to get off of this world ever since Sora disappeared. But every time I start dialing Mickey’s number, I’m back in the Keyblade Graveyard. And this time, Terra’s armor doesn’t come in to save us. Even with my full power, I can’t do anything but watch as we all fall to darkness one by one. And that was with everybody working together at full strength. What if Sora’s facing something similar, and by finding him now I’m still not strong enough to actually save him—”

Kairi interrupted Riku by pulling him into a hug. Riku tensed up in her arms, but she didn’t let go of him as she explained. “I thought I was the only one who felt they weren’t strong enough. I know when I get caught up in my own head like this a hug helps, so hopefully it helps for you too.”

Riku finally relaxed and hugged her back. “Thanks for this, Kairi. I know I’m supposed to be the Keyblade Master and have all the answers, but part of me will always be the kid who was willing to jump into darkness without thinking about how deep that abyss was.”

Kairi just laughed as she pulled out of the hug. “Do you ever think that maybe we need to have a new type of Keyblade Master? The old way didn’t seem to turn out so well for anybody. Maybe what we need are more people like you who are willing to jump into that abyss for the right reasons and grow stronger for that. I’m sure Sora would have something great to say here, so what do you say we go out and find him so we don’t have to imagine what it would be?”

Riku chuckled as well. “Knowing him, he’d probably just be too excited to throw my old ‘Giving up already? I thought you were stronger than that’ routine back at me. It obviously stuck with him since even Roxas was familiar with it. Still, you’re right that we should give him a chance to say it in person. I’ve got some stuff I want to finish up out here first, though, so how about we wait until morning to call Mickey?”

Kairi nodded. “Sounds good to me. Could you use some help finishing up? I’m probably not getting any more sleep tonight either.”

Riku sighed, but then a smirk crossed his face. “Well, now that you mention it…”

* * *

Kairi dismissed her Keyblade and hunched over, panting as she tried to catch her breath. Riku’s request had started off simple enough—he was going through the old obstacle course he and Sora would often race on and trying to see how much of it was still in good condition. Tidus, Wakka, and Selphie had stopped coming to the play island shortly after the worlds had returned from darkness, and no other kids had really bothered coming out to the island. And with their adventures across various worlds Sora and Riku no longer bothered using the obstacle course. After two years of disuse, there were some areas that were either starting to rot or had collapsed from storm damage. Riku’s stated goal had been to keep the structurally sound pieces standing, destroy any pieces that weren’t safe, and then gather any of the good wood from the demolished structures to be used later.

Of course, Riku decided this would be the perfect opportunity to start practicing at teaching others. After all, if he and Sora first built up their basic fighting skills and movement abilities on this beach, then Riku would be happy to pass this training method on to others. And since he didn’t get a chance to see Kairi in action at the Keyblade Graveyard, Riku wanted to use this as a chance to see what she could do. Kairi was happy to oblige, and decided to show off a little bit. After all, they used to keep track of the fastest times to finish the course, and that was back when she couldn’t use Doubleflight, Air Slide, or her light-infused Slide dodge. Kairi was able to blow any previous time out of the water, even with throwing in a couple of Aerial Recoveries when platforms just collapsed under her.

However, this only seemed to give Riku more ideas. He had Kairi run the course again, but this time she also had to dodge Blizzard spells and tiny orbs of darkness thanks to a highly restrained version of Riku’s Dark Divide Shotlock. Things kept escalating until Kairi was jumping between numerous ice rails, sliding through Thunder spells, and having to hit targets that Riku called out with Keyblade strikes. She couldn’t deny her sense of accomplishment at getting through the gauntlet, even if it did leave her exhausted. Most of her time in Merlin’s training had been spent learning magic or sparring with the Keyblade, with most movement being focused in quick bursts instead of Riku’s more marathon-like approach.

Riku walked up to her with a smile on his face. “Well, I have to say that went pretty well. You move a lot better than I did when I first got my Keyblade, and I think it’s safe to say this training method is a lot more fun than some others I could use.”

Kairi found herself sparing some oxygen to laugh. “Something tells me this was more fun for you than it was for me. What, did you really wait all this time just to get revenge for me slacking off while you put most of the work into building the raft?”

Riku laughed as well. “If I said that didn’t play a factor, I’d be lying. But it was mostly just to test it out for future students and to give me an idea of your current skill level. I’m thinking we should spar sometime soon, but obviously after you recover. What do you think sounds like okay rules—I’m thinking only first tier magic, defensive abilities, and holding back on the bigger moves.”

Kairi nodded. “That’s basically what Axel and I did when training under Merlin. A bit of advice—it’s a lot harder to hold back than you think. Start way smaller than you think you need to and then work up from there until you’re just pushing what your partner can handle. It took us a while to work the proper level for sparring, and while it gave us plenty of opportunities to work on our Cure spells it’s probably not the best approach for any other students you might take under your wing.”

“Got it,” Riku responded. “I’ll be sure to keep that in mind. Now, feel free to say no to this—I know I just put you through quite the workout—but would you mind helping me carry this wood into the seaside shack?”

Kairi’s breathing had finally returned to a more normal level, so she smiled at her friend. “No problem. Although, since I’m helping, you have to finally explain what all of this is for.”

Riku easily lifted up several fallen planks and started heading for the shack. “Sure, but before I start, have you talked with Naminé in the last couple of days?”

Kairi picked up some planks of her own and followed after the Keyblade Master as she responded. “Not since we dropped her off in Twilight Town. I thought I should give her some space. She spent months as a part of me, and I didn’t want her to feel like I was still overtaking her life by constantly hovering around.”

Riku made a grunt Kairi recognized as one of acknowledgement. “Well, she hasn’t been doing too well in Twilight Town. She likes being close to Roxas, Xion, and the others, but I think there were too many bad memories for her in that world. I mean, she did have to deal with Ansem when he was at his worst, and I wasn’t exactly in the position to be the best of friends to her. So, she was wondering if she could come live on the Islands, and I offered for her to stay in my apartment. She got all weirded out by that, so I’m trying to build a place out here. That way, she can have my apartment to herself and I’ll just live out here whenever I’m on this world.”

Kairi nearly tripped and dropped her planks, forcing her to stop. She knew exactly why Naminé would have freaked out at the thought of staying in a studio apartment with Riku. Of course, Kairi only knew about her Nobody’s massive crush on the Keyblade Master due to the time Naminé spent within her heart. Naminé had tried to completely disappear within Kairi, attempting to throw all of her memories and feelings into her Somebody so she could fade away. Of course, now that she was her own person again, Naminé definitely wouldn’t appreciate Kairi just blurting out her deepest secrets.

Still, it wouldn’t help either of her friends to let the misunderstanding continue, so she worked with information that wouldn’t be too compromising. “Riku, I think you should stop. Naminé won’t be happy with taking your apartment if it means kicking you out, even if you have a shack out on this island. You might not think you were a great friend to her during the year she was working on Sora’s memories, but she doesn’t look at it that way. You have to remember; you were the first person who didn’t treat her like a disposable tool.”

Riku scoffed. “Just because I treated her with a bit of common decency doesn’t mean I was her friend. I still was only hanging around with her because it was the only way for Sora to wake up. Spending about a year as forced coworkers isn’t exactly the basis of a friendship. Besides, Sora would have been the first person to befriend her, not me.”

Kairi sighed. “From your point of view, all of those things are true. But try to look at things from Naminé’s point of view. Admittedly, I have a bit of an unfair advantage when it comes to that since I spent months with her inside my heart, but I can try to lay it out for you. Unlike most Nobodies, she didn’t have any memories of her past life to guide her. What she did have was her power over Sora’s memories, basically letting her use those as her only source of context. Then she has to mess with Sora’s memories and put him in a coma. So, from her very birth she knows how important you and Sora are for each other thanks to Sora’s memories, and now she’s responsible for Sora being lost. Every other person in her life has abused her—but you take the time to actually care about her. You were the one who made sure she didn’t work herself into the ground, you were the one who remembered that she didn’t like eating anything tomato-based and adjusted your grocery runs, and you were the one who would take her to that pond in the forest when she needed some time away from the mansion.”

Riku looked taken aback. “I guess I never really thought about any of that. Now I feel like I’m still being a bad friend to her that I never even considered everything she went through in detail like this. Okay, so if my plan isn’t going to help, do you have any suggestions?”

Kairi sighed. “Well, I know it goes against the whole ‘getting out of my shadow’ thing, but it would probably be best for her to stay with my parents. They know just enough about the existence of other worlds that it wouldn’t be hard to just say Naminé is from another world and they’d know they shouldn’t ask too many questions. We also have a spare bedroom, so Naminé won’t have to worry about kicking anybody else out. And it’s not like my parents have no experience taking in a girl from another world.”

Riku fidgeted around with the wood he had already carried into the shack, and Kairi knew he was trying to figure out the best way to say what was on his mind. “If we’re going to do that, though. I’ve got a condition. We have to tell your parents everything. I don’t want to have to deal with another conversation like we had with Sora’s mom. They deserve to know the truth of what we’re up to.”

Kairi flinched. The conversation with Sora’s mom after he disappeared had been a huge disaster as they explained that Sora had gone missing yet again. Toshiko had practically fallen into a nervous breakdown and Kairi had been worried she would have lost her heart to darkness. The only consolation had been that Mickey, Donald, and Goofy were present as well, and were able to help the grieving mother through the initial steps. The Disney Castle residents were able to speak as fellow adults with their own experiences having to struggle with distant family members—Kairi hadn’t even known Mickey had an older brother or Goofy a son—and that along with the promise that everyone was searching for Sora and would keep her updated had managed to get her through the initial shock.

While Kairi didn’t want a repeat of that situation, there were still plenty of risks with giving the whole truth of her adventures over the past years. “Are we sure we want to do that? Isn’t the first rule of being a Keyblade Wielder to not disrupt the world order?”

Riku rolled his eyes. “Yen Sid chose me as a potential Keyblade Master because I represented a change to the established thinking that all darkness was evil. I’m supposed to be a force for change, and I’m not going to just apply that to how much light or darkness I pass on to my students. I’m not for just telling everybody the great truth—we really don’t need more people following in Xehanort’s footsteps—but we can’t just rigorously hold everything secret. Anybody that would be directly affected by the existence of other worlds has a right to know the truth—and that includes our families.”

Kairi could see Riku’s point, even though it would certainly not be an easy conversation when she revealed she’d been keeping secrets from her parents for so long. “Okay, I’ll be sure to tell them. Do you have any advice on how to start that talk?”

Riku flinched. “Well, I can probably tell you how not to do it. Let’s just say the conversation with my dad didn’t go well. There’s a reason I had to find a new apartment so quickly.”

Kairi gasped before glaring at her friend. “Riku, why didn’t you say anything earlier? Don’t tell me you’re starting to bottle up your feelings again. What do we have to go through to get you to remember you don’t have to face everything alone? Your friends are still here to support you.”

Riku sighed. “Listen, I didn’t tell you because honestly it isn’t that big of a deal with me. And no, this isn’t my ‘I’m not jealous of Sora’ brand of denial that let Maleficent manipulate me. My dad and I were never as close as you are with your parents, and I think a part of me had made peace with moving away even as far back as when we first built the raft. These last adventures only confirmed that I would be fine if my path and his didn’t really intersect in my life. Our argument just served to speed up what was already inevitable, and I don’t have any problems with it. It really wasn’t worth bringing up when we’ve got something more important to work on.”

Kairi relaxed. “Okay, I guess I don’t fully understand how you can be okay with that, but I’ll believe you that you are. Still, if you ever need to talk about anything just know that I’m here for you. Well, maybe not right this moment—if I’m going to tell my parents everything, I should probably try to get a couple of hours of sleep before sunrise."

* * *

Kairi held her breath and stared at her parents’ faces as she finally finished her explanation. The initial looks of disbelief about her story had faded near the start of her retelling once she had summoned her Keyblade, and her Gummiphone had helped provide visuals on some parts of her story where verbal description failed to do things justice. Other than that, her parents had decided to let her speak uninterrupted for the duration of her tale—which wasn’t quite a full summary of the events of the past two years, but went into full detail on the parts Kairi was directly involved in and hit the important points of the rest of Sora and Riku’s journeys. Now that she had caught them up to the present moment, all she could do was wait for their reactions.

Her dad was the first to snap out of his musings, standing up and rushing around the table to wrap her in a hug. Kairi happily returned the embrace and noticed her dad was shaking with sobs, leaving her in an awkward position of trying to comfort the older man. While she patted her dad on the back, Kairi noticed her mom was absently twirling her spoon from breakfast in a habit Kairi recognized. Over the past twelve years as mayor, her mom had always started fidgeting with objects in her hands when she was contemplating a particularly difficult problem for the town—and her wide margin of victory in every reelection campaign showed how well she was able to handle those problems.

However, while the habit was familiar to Kairi, the defeated tone of her mother’s voice was not. “You’re only telling us this because you’re leaving to find Sora and don’t know when you’ll be back, aren’t you?”

“I’m sorry mom, but yes. I have to go out and find him. I’m in love with him.” Kairi’s dad stiffened in her embrace, and only then realized what she said. She fought down a blush as she realized this was the first time she had said that out loud, and in probably the worst scenario. Ideally, Sora would have been the first person to hear her say she loved him. Barring that, Riku or Naminé wouldn’t have been too bad, since Riku hadn’t been too subtle in trying to push the two of them together and Naminé had literally lived inside her heart. It wasn’t that she didn’t want her parents to know, but this wasn’t exactly the best time.

Her dad pulled back slightly from their hug, but only far enough that they could look each other in the eyes. “Have you told him that? Or are you just telling yourself that now that he’s gone?”

Kairi found her gaze shifting into a glare that her father was doubting her, but before she could say anything he continued. “Sorry, that came out wrong. But what you just said brought back some bad memories, and I don’t want you repeating my mistakes.” He pulled away completely from the embrace and sighed as he stared at the table gathering his thoughts.

“This goes back to when I was only about a year older than you in high school. There was this girl I had started seeing, but we hadn’t really gotten very far into our relationship when she had a boating accident. It tore me up, but what was worse was I convinced myself I had been in love with her just because she was gone. I ended up in a really dark place, and it took me years and therapy to get through it.”

Kairi’s mom reached across the table and gave her husband’s hand a squeeze. “Well, I can think of one way to avoid repeating the past. Kairi, you’ll just have to find Sora and tell him in person.”

Kairi’s eyes widened. “You’re telling me to go after him? I thought I’d have to convince you not to stop me.”

Kairi’s mom just smiled. “Kairi, I know you well enough to know that when you really set your mind to something, there’s no stopping you from doing it. I wouldn’t have thought I could stop you even before I learned you could always summon a magic key that can open any lock and had access to a spaceship to take you off-world. I wouldn’t say I’m happy that you’re going off on a journey with no clue on how long it will last, but I am proud of you for doing this for Sora. Still, I might not be able to stop you, but I do have a few conditions I want you to follow. First, I don’t want you to go about this alone.”

“Mom, I can handle—”

“I don’t mean you can’t be on your own, but I mean I don’t want you to be the only person who’s out looking. I can only assume there are hundreds of worlds out there, and it will be a lot easier to search them all if you aren’t the only person looking. You’ve got a lot of friends who are able to travel the worlds—please just ask them to help you.”

Kairi smiled. “Don’t worry, that’s the first plan. Riku and I are headed out to meet up with Roxas and the others in Twilight Town so Riku can learn to make dark corridors again. I obviously won’t be able to use those, but this way other people can still investigate the worlds without having to share the Gummi Ship.”

Kairi’s mom nodded. “Great. That leads me to my next condition—your father and I will want one of those Gummiphones. I know it wouldn’t be safe for the two of us to go with you physically, but we’d like to be able to at least hear from you more often than you’ll probably be able to stop back and visit in person.”

Kairi frowned. “I can’t promise that for sure, but I’ll talk to King Mickey about it. I’m pretty sure he’s the one who’s funding Chip and Dale’s inventions. I don’t think it will be a problem though, and I can call him as soon as we’re done talking.”

“Well, I guess that makes me the first mayor of Destiny Islands to request a gift from a king. But that bit of history can just stay between us. I’m glad you trust us enough to let us in on the secret, and we’ll be sure to keep everything under wraps for you. Just be sure to come back safe, okay?”

Kairi’s dad cleared his throat. “Actually, if it isn’t too much trouble, could I add one more request for this journey of yours? Would it be possible for us to meet Naminé? I’m not sure if it would be easier for us to ride the Gummiship to Twilight Town or for her to ride it here, but I’d like to be able to talk with her in person.”

Kairi laughed. “It’s funny you should mention that. I was actually going to ask you if it would be okay for Naminé to stay in our spare bedroom. She’s been dealing with some bad memories where she’s staying and was hoping to start fresh in a new world. She technically did live here for a few months before within my heart, so we were thinking it wouldn’t be as huge of an adjustment to come here—especially with Riku around. I know it’s asking a lot, but would you be able to take her in just like you did with me?”

Kairi noticed her parents share a glance before her mom responded. “That shouldn’t be an issue. I’ll start working on the paperwork for us to be assigned as temporary guardians. Naminé would be about fifteen or sixteen if we had to assign her an age, right? If we go with that, she’d be able to decide if she wants us to officially adopt her or just be emancipated in a year or so. For the sake of the world order though, it would probably be best if she’s ‘found’ on the play island instead of landing in a Gummiship on the mayor’s lawn.”

Kairi smiled until her dad started responding, which gave her a feeling of impending doom. While it wasn’t quite the feeling of a giant heartless, she had lived with the man long enough to recognize when he was about to make a joke that would thoroughly embarrass her. However, she wasn’t able to do anything to stop the next words that came out of his mouth.

“You know, it’s funny. On paper, if I found out my teenaged daughter was asking us to take in our granddaughter while she chased down her missing boyfriend, I thought I’d be a lot angrier…”


	2. Twilight Town

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kairi's journey starts by visiting some old friends and picking up some new skills. Unfortunately, some new (or rather, very old) arrivals show the peace after the last Keyblade War may already be over.

Seeing as she had never been to the abandoned mansion in Twilight Town, Kairi never thought she would be so happy to see it in the distance. However, the happiness wasn’t so much at the sight of the destination as it was the signal that the very awkward Gummiship ride was over. It had taken her long enough to get over her mortification at her parents’ joke about Naminé being her and Sora’s daughter. Then she had made the mistake of recounting the tale to Riku as they boarded the Gummiship, and he had initially seemed on her side. Then he had cracked up and said if anything, she wasn’t a teen mother—she was a teen father, and Sora was the teen mother. Kairi had then spent the rest of the ride to Twilight Town trying to ignore Riku’s cackling, wondering if hitting herself in the face with a Blizzard spell would stop the blushing, and seriously considering carving a hole into one of the Teeny Ships and riding in that for the rest of the journey.

As the ship finally landed in the courtyard, Kairi saw Xion, Pence, and Olette standing by a small pile of boxes. She took a moment to be happy she had worn her dress that was enchanted by the three fairies—judging from the outfits of the three Twilight Town residents, it had recently gotten a fair bit colder as summer changed to fall. While the fairies’ magic wasn’t able to handle every weather extreme, it did make the outfits keep the wearer warmer in cold weather and cooler in hot weather than the look of the fabric implied. Since Olette had replaced her usual tank tops with an orange turtleneck and Xion seemed to be wearing a black long-sleeved shirt and leggings under her new favorite dress, Kairi felt she’d appreciate the magic garments since she was never too fond of cold temperatures.

By the time Kairi and Riku had disembarked, Roxas and Hayner had exited the mansion carrying their own boxes. Kairi couldn’t help but suppress a chuckle at seeing they were both wearing the same outfits they had worn to the beach party. She remembered Sora and Riku having similar competitions where the first person to admit they were feeling cold enough to change into warmer clothes lost bragging rights. Hayner seemed to pick up on her mood and laughed. “Perfect timing guys, way to show up after we got most of the boxes to the apartments. Not like we couldn’t have used the Gummiship to take everything in one trip…”

Olette sighed. “Hayner, we’ve been over this. We can’t just fly the Gummiship over downtown just to make things more convenient enough. We already have created an eighth wonder of Twilight Town just from the rumors of the UFO, and we really don’t need to flaunt that we have friends from other worlds to everybody.”

Riku smiled. “She does have a point, but we’d be happy to help carry some boxes. Are Isa and Lea here too, or are they unloading back at the apartments? Figured it would make more sense to head over together, and I’ll need to learn how to open dark corridors again from them anyway. No offense to you, Roxas or Xion, but they do have years more of experience than you do.”

Xion laughed. “None taken. They’re both back at the apartments, although if I were you, I’d ask Sa—I mean, Isa. Axel’s a great friend, but he’s not exactly the best teacher.” Kairi noticed Xion flinch as she started to say Saïx, and wondered how she was adjusting to that. Unlike Axel who decided to mix his old and new names by going as Lea to most people but Axel to his friends from his time in the Organization (or to enemies he wanted to mock), Isa had tried to completely set aside his Nobody name. Considering the pain Saïx had caused to Roxas and Xion specifically, that was probably for the best. However, it must not have been easy for the two youngest former Organization members living alongside their former tormentor, and Roxas seemed quick to jump in with a different suggestion.

“Actually, we already had enough people for the boxes we have left. Since Kairi obviously won’t be able to summon any dark corridors, why doesn’t she stay here with Xion? I know I haven’t been able to pick up your fancier light tricks yet, Xion, but maybe Kairi will have an easier time since she’s a Princess of Heart. Riku can take the boxes you were going to carry, and you can start training when we’re gone.”

Kairi could tell there was something big that wasn’t being said at the moment, but since Xion was quick to agree with Roxas’s suggestion and only Riku seemed to pick up on the strangeness, she decided to let things go and ask Xion about what was going on when everybody else was gone. After a little bit of catching up with everyone, Riku had grabbed his boxes and followed the Twilight Town residents through the forest path, leaving Kairi alone with Xion. Xion had already summoned her Kingdom Key and looked ready to start teaching, but Kairi interrupted before she could say anything.

“I don’t mean to pry, but is everything going okay with you? It seems like everybody else might know, but if you want to talk about anything I’m here to listen.”

Xion sighed. “You don’t have to worry. Things with Isa are…complicated, and I’m having one of my bad days when it comes to him. I know he’s trying to make up for everything he did, and he has been ever since I was brought into the new Organization. But those memories of him apologizing to me now and him working with me to try and stop the Xehanort fragment from taking me over before I could regain my own identity sometimes aren’t enough for me to forget how he treated me in the first Organization. We’re talking through it, and Isa told me he’s happy to give me space whenever I need it. Axel and Roxas sometimes get a little overprotective of me around him, but we’re working everything out.”

Kairi smiled at her black-haired doppelganger. “Okay, I’m glad things are getting better. I’m still around if you ever feel like talking about anything. Still, Roxas did leave us here with a mission, and I have to admit I’m a bit curious. What exactly did Roxas mean by your ‘fancier’ light tricks?”

Xion just laughed. “Before I answer that, how about you show me some of the things you can already do? And some of my fancier tricks are a bit easier to explain after you’ve seen them. How about a quick spar?”

* * *

Kairi gasped as the brunt of Xion’s giant pillar of light hit her. Since she was a Princess of Heart the attack wasn’t quite as devastating as it would have been against a Heartless, but it still hurt. However, there was a reason she had taken the hit. Xion had explained the concept of a limit break to her, and how it was easier to harness massive power when there was an air of desperation to the attack. She was seeing if that would help her master the intricacies of the Salvation attack. As soon as she landed on her feet, Kairi slashed in a circle with her Keyblade and was rewarded with pillars of light appearing in a circle all around her. Xion was knocked backwards by the blast, and Kairi felt some of her own energy return—not as much as a Cure spell could handle, but about as effective as a regular potion.

Kairi was quick to cast her own Curaga to fully heal herself, although she felt another wave of healing energy wash over her at the same time as she cast her own spell. She shared a chuckle with Xion over their simultaneous healing spells before she addressed her teacher. “Well, I’d say the limit break approach really worked. The light seems to be doing its job of taking energy from my opponents and restoring my own—but did it keep the lingering effect like your attacks do, or was that Curaga enough to bring you back to normal?”

Xion’s smile faltered. “I think the Curaga got me back to full health. Still, you’ve accomplished a lot in a short amount of time. Managing to pull off Lightcharge and Salvation based on my limit break when you hadn’t even heard of limit breaks before today is amazing! In fact, you…”

Kairi stopped listening to Xion as she felt the sudden crushing pressure of darkness on her heart. She brandished Destiny’s Embrace as she searched for the source, and noticed Xion stop talking and ready her Kingdom Key as well. Suddenly, a dark figure started fading in and out of existence near the door of the mansion. Despite the figure’s transient state, Kairi could make out the telltale blank yellow eyes of a Heartless. As the figure became more and more solid, Kairi noticed that it was built similarly to an Air Soldier, although it had smaller black wings and was wearing a two-pieced black jester’s hat instead of the aviator goggles. The biggest difference, though, was the lack of the Heartless emblem on its chest, instead only having two red thorny vines crossing in front of its navy-blue skin. Still, even if this was a new variety of Heartless, Kairi could tell it would be dangerous. Size typically correlated with power among Heartless, and this creature stood slightly taller than she did.

Hoping to get any information before this new Heartless became fully solid, Kairi called out to Xion. “This doesn’t look like any Heartless I’ve seen before, but did you run into these when you were in the Organization? Just seeing if we can avoid anything stupid once it tries to attack us.”

“No, we never heard about anything like this. I want to say it’s a variant of a Soldier, but—”

“Lux…”

Kairi almost dropped her Keyblade at the raspy voice that interrupted Xion. Since when could Heartless talk? Even Sora hadn’t managed that despite maintaining some of his identity. The only cases she could think of were Xehanort’s Heartless—both with the main body of Ansem and the shadowy Guardian that housed Terra’s heart—but considering everything he had done, anything associated with Xehanort was considered an exception to the usual rule. She was so wrapped up in this strange occasion that she could barely react when the Heartless screamed and charged.

“LUX!” The monster rushed towards Kairi with its crimson claws, who was a bit slow raising her Keyblade to block. Luckily, Xion was quicker to get back into a combat mindset and threw herself between Kairi and the Heartless, causing its claws to harmlessly scrape off of a Reflect spell. The ensuing Counter Burst knocked the Heartless backwards, and by this time Kairi had finally gotten over her shock and sent a few balls of Holy magic after it trying to inflict some extra damage, only for the heartless to throw up its own dark barrier that nullified the attack. However, the surprises weren’t over, as the creature dropped its barrier to reveal a new weapon. Its right arm shifted so that instead of ending in a clawed hand, its wrist was now melded into the grip of a familiar weapon. If it weren’t for the star-shaped teeth, Kairi could have passed it off as just creating an all-black copy of Xion’s weapon much like the former Nobody could copy other weapons. However, the change only made it look like one thing could be true, which Xion put into words before Kairi could.

“Okay, how is it possible for a Heartless to wield a Keyblade?” This simple fact seemed completely at odds with one of the basic premises of how the worlds should have worked, and clearly that was throwing Xion off. However, Kairi thought it might have been a bit of a blessing from her standpoint. While she didn’t have anywhere close to the same amount of combat experience as Xion, most of her combat experience was facing off against other Keyblade wielders. Apart from Merlin’s enchanted furniture, a couple of Shadows, and Saïx, she had done all of her fighting against Axel, Xion, Xehanort, and Riku. This let her be less surprised when her opponent tried to attack with a Keyblade, and she managed to throw herself between the Heartless and Xion and return the favor of stopping an attack with her Barrier.

With the opening moves out of the way, Kairi and Xion both were able to focus on the battle. However, it quickly became apparent that this strange new Heartless wasn’t as much of a threat without the element of surprise on its side. It may have been smarter than the average Heartless, but it still fought more like an animal than a skilled combatant. It fought with all the savagery of Saïx in his berserk state, but without the overwhelming power the Nobody brought to bear that made blocking attacks difficult. Kairi and Xion soon got into a comfortable pattern where one of them would block a flurry of attacks while the other would attack the Heartless’s unprotected back, and when the Heartless turned to deal with its attacker the two Keyblade wielders would simply switch roles.

Unfortunately, the easy fight didn’t last too long. As had happened with most of the enemies Kairi fought, after taking a decent amount of damage this new Heartless became more dangerous. It let out an animalistic screech before a wave of darkness swept out from it, pushing Xion and Kairi back. They struggled to stay on their feet against the force output by the dark cyclone, but it quickly became apparent that other beings were immune—specifically the Shadows that began appearing and swarming together in the darkness, clumping into Demon Towers until the Heartless at the center of the mass stopped screaming and the wave of darkness dissipated. It didn’t look different after its tantrum apart from a corona of dark energy surrounding its Keyblade, but even if there weren’t any changes the fact that the original Heartless was now backed up by a Demon Tide would make dealing with it much more difficult.

However, just when Kairi was expecting a difficult fight balancing two powerful enemies, the Demon Tide flew away, heading towards the forest. It only took her a second to realize why: even though the Heartless would normally be drawn to a Keyblade or a Princess of Heart, there were only two Keyblades and a Princess at the mansion. Somewhere in Twilight Town, there were four Keyblades—and who knew how many innocent townspeople between the Heartless and their target. Considering Xion was faster and had better attacks to deal with giant targets, there was really only one course of action Kairi could take.

“I’ll handle the new Heartless, Xion, you alert the others and then try to stop the Demon Tide from attacking the town!”

Kairi could hear the strain in Xion’s voice as she responded. “Okay, but be careful!” The former Nobody then transformed into a ball of light, which bounced down the path chasing down the Demon Tide. Kairi could only hope her friends would be enough to stop any major damage while she finished dealing with the threat in front of her. A few seconds after Xion left, Kairi heard the muffled sound of a flute coming from her pocket, indicating she had gotten a message on her Gummiphone. This could only mean Xion had sent out the call for help, and the rest of her friends would soon be on the way. Content in the knowledge that the residents of Twilight Town were as safe as they could be at the moment, Kairi focused on the enemy in front of her.

Luckily, the Heartless she was facing wasn’t the only one with the ability to supercharge their weapon. Her training with Xion had given her more than just the ability to use Salvation. She may not be as quick with Formchanges as Axel was or able to enact as dramatic of changes as Sora or Terra could, but she had landed enough hits on the Heartless before it had transformed that she was now able to enter Lightcharge and imbue her blade with the power of light. Visually this just gave it an extra corona of light, but it added light-elemental damage to her attacks and added an explosion of light to the finishing blow if she managed to string together a combo.

Kairi was all set to continue the fight as a one-on-one battle, but it seemed the mysterious Heartless had other plans. With a cackling laugh, it suddenly split into three copies of itself, taking the numbers advantage. Knowing she’d have to take the initiative now, Kairi launched her Heart of a Princess Shotlock. Even though she could only target the attack at one enemy, the Heartless were tightly packed enough that all three of them were hit by the salvo of light. As Kairi skated around the enemies, she was surprised to find two copies immediately fade out of existence when they took one hit. Realizing this meant the extra copies were more of a distraction than actual threats, Kairi pressed the assault on the original by throwing her Keyblade at it. As soon as Destiny’s Embrace hit her target, Kairi teleported in and continued the combo, finishing off with a burst of light that knocked the Heartless back.

The Heartless screamed in defiance and spawned a handful of copies, but Kairi wasn’t worried. She didn’t even bother counting the enemies and just cast a Thundaga over the area, frying the duplicates and stunning the original for enough time to throw Destiny’s Embrace at it once again. Feeling her Lightcharge nearing its end, Kairi cut her combo short and went directly into her Seven Wishes attack. Unlike when she had used this against Xehanort, the images of her Thalassa shell charm lingered after the first six blitzes, and then they all collided with the Heartless with her final rush to further increase the damage. However, she underestimated the drain on her own stamina, and it took her a bit longer to recover from her finisher than she expected. This gave the Heartless enough time to recover and fling its weapon at her, forcing her to put up her barrier to block.

Kairi expected the attack to hit her barrier, or at worst punch straight through it. What she didn’t expect was for there to be a yellow flash that intercepted the projectile and destroyed it a split second before it rushed to the Heartless which immediately faded away leaving only a heart floating into the sky. The flash then resolved itself into a figure facing away from her wearing a yellow robe, but Kairi’s eyes were drawn to the lightning-like teeth of what was unmistakably a Keyblade.

“It’s nice to see you again, Ava. When you didn’t meet up with the rest of us, I was worried you hadn’t made it. Still, things must have been rough if a Darkling gave you so much trouble.” At this, the obviously male voice stopped talking and turned to face Kairi, although she wasn’t able to see much of his face behind the cat-shaped mask he wore. Still, Kairi was certain she had never met this man before—at least, not since she had started living on Destiny Islands—so she had no idea why he thought he knew her.

“I’m sorry, but I think you have me confused with someone else. My name is Kairi. Still, thank you for your help with the Heartless. Would you mind introducing yourself? I thought I knew every Keyblade wielder, but it’s obvious I was mistaken.”

The robed man seemed to stare at her in shock for a few seconds before he recovered. “My apologies. You reminded me of an old friend of mine—maybe just because you’re carrying on her legacy. It’s best if you stay away from me—the last time I got involved with other Keyblade wielders, things didn’t end well. That Darkling you fought? It was one of my students who fell to darkness, yet retained some memories of its past life to fight with a facsimile of a Keyblade. The Darklings probably followed us here, so it’s my fault that you have to deal with them. Just another mess for us to clean up…”

Kairi was about to ask for more clarification when the robed man disappeared in the same flash of yellow that heralded his arrival. Unsure of what to make of this, she could only stand flabbergasted for a few seconds before remembering she didn’t have time to ask questions. She rushed off towards the forest hoping to catch up to Xion in case there was anything she could do to help, but when she arrived at the clearing just before the town wall she found another sight that forced her to stop. While she had expected to see her Keyblade-wielding friends fighting off the shadows, there were additional allies she was surprised to find. While it wasn’t that surprising that Isa had thrown on his Organization cloak and brought his claymore to assist in the battle, she was surprised to find Naminé involved as well. There were scorch marks across the former Nobody’s lavender Lolita-style dress with white sleeves, but judging from the wisps of Fire magic fading around her hands that was likely due to her own spell more than other attacks. However, if Naminé’s involvement was a surprise, the other helpers were a complete shock.

The last few stragglers of the Heartless swarm were being dismissed by a pair of Berserkers, an Assassin, a Samurai, and five Dusks. Kairi supposed it wasn’t strictly unusual for Nobodies to fight against Heartless—after all, that had been the first Organization’s entire mission—but the last time she had seen the two groups of enemies had been at the Keyblade Graveyard when they were all fighting on the same side. She couldn’t remember a time when the lesser Nobodies had ever allied with her friends, and couldn’t help but wonder if they would soon turn on the Keyblade wielders. It seemed to be the case when two Dusks broke off and started rushing towards her, but just as Kairi raised her Keyblade to attack Xion’s voice cut through the woods.

“No, stop!” Kairi stumbled a bit, but the Dusks stopped in their tracks and turned towards the command. After a few seconds, Xion continued as if she was having a conversation Kairi couldn’t hear. “I’m sure that was just a misunderstanding. She’s my friend, and she probably doesn’t speak your language.”

Kairi sighed. “Before I get any more lost, would anybody mind filling me in on what Xion is talking about?”

Roxas dismissed his Keyblades and sheepishly put his hands behind his head, a gesture Kairi recognized and assumed he picked up unconsciously from Sora. “Right, I guess only people in the Organization learned how to understand Dusks. Well, Sora could too, but I’m guessing he got that from me along with the dual-wielding and the skateboard skills…”

Isa interrupted before Roxas meandered further. “These Dusks are willing to help us, but they seem to be laboring under the impression that you betrayed them. Something about them freeing you from a cell and then you promising to torture them for it in some rather obscene language…”

Kairi flashed back to her unsuccessful escape attempt in The World that Never Was, when she had tried squeezing her way through the bars only to get caught halfway. A group of Dusks saw her attempting to wiggle her way through and then opened her cell, but when she tried thanking them, they had turned hostile. “Okay, I think I get what happened. They caught me trying to wiggle out of my cell, and I think they took that as communication. They let me out, and I tried to thank them in their wiggle language. Clearly, I said pretty much the opposite of what I was trying to say. I guess that explains why the Dusks would be hostile to me, but why are the rest of the Nobodies helping?”

Kairi noticed Xion wiping tears from her eyes, but the smile on her face made it clear they were tears of happiness. “That’s thanks to the Dusks. When they remembered me, they abandoned the Organization to try and find me. Then they gathered other Nobodies they found that were more loyal to their former commanders than the Organization as a whole and brought them together. I was the only one who didn’t have specific Nobodies under their command, but these Dusks still cared for me enough to recruit allies among the last of the other Nobody types.”

This time, Riku interrupted with a question. “Wait, what do you mean, the last of the other Nobody types? I get that the formation of Nobodies is supposed to be a rare phenomenon, and we did destroy a lot of them over the last couple of years, but there always seemed to be more around regardless of how many we defeated.”

Axel sighed. “Well, looks like it’s time for another little history lesson. Didn’t you ever find it strange how, apart from some exceptional cases that kept a human appearance, Nobodies all formed into specific classes that just so happened to mimic the skills of the Organization member that commanded them? That didn’t exactly happen by accident. Turns out when the leader of a group of Nobodies has control over the element of Nothingness, he gets to be very good at literally molding his army into the shapes he wants.”

Isa smirked. “I believe Sora once said it wasn’t a very organized Organization, but what you saw was a lot neater than the first seven or so years after its formation. At first, we relied on our two assassins to keep the other Nobodies in line, and then Xemnas mastered turning troublemakers into Dusks. Shortly after the final conflict in Castle Oblivion he mastered creating more advanced classes of Nobodies for the remaining members, and around the time of his initial death he was able to replenish the castle armies by creating the Nobodies directly. Of course, he didn’t exactly have reasons to create new Nobodies for members who had wisely betrayed him, which is why there weren’t any new Assassins or Samurai, and the new Alpha Berserkers that served under me in the New Organization weren’t loyal to me. These are the last of the Nobodies that survived from the initial Organization to return and assist us.”

In light of this information, Kairi thought it was exceptionally lucky that Xemnas had been defeated before he stretched his godlike powers even further. Still, having additional help could only be a good thing if her earlier encounter with the Darkling proved to be a sign of things to come, and Kairi had a bad feeling that things were going to get worse before they got better. “Well, I’m glad they’re on our side now. We might have another big threat on our hands. Did Xion get a chance to tell you we fought with a Heartless that could use a Keyblade?”

The look of surprise on the faces of most of the group indicated there hadn’t been time for Xion to discuss the details of the fight. However, in scanning her friends’ faces Kairi noticed Naminé flinch back before ducking her head in what appeared to be shame. Kairi was about to ask about it when Riku quickly met her gaze and shook his head, letting Kairi know she shouldn’t pry. The Keyblade Master put his hand on the artist’s shoulder, and Kairi decided to just press on with her explanation.

“Well, that isn’t technically true, but that wasn’t the worst of the surprises. It could talk, use what looked like a Keyblade, and make duplicates of itself, but after fighting it for a while someone else came in and destroyed it…with his own Keyblade. The guy wasn’t exactly friendly, and I don’t know much about him since he stayed hidden behind yellow robes and a cat mask, but he said some stuff that was really worrying. He called the Heartless a Darkling, and claimed it had been one of his students that had used a Keyblade and fell to darkness, but remembered how to use a Keyblade and make copies of it. It sounds like it’s the step beyond what happened to Aqua in the Realm of Darkness, but he implied that he wasn’t alone, and that other Darklings may have followed his group.”

Roxas sighed. “So, we’ve got a mysterious new Keyblade wielder that may or may not be hostile, and he may or may not be part of a group of masters that took students, and we could have to deal with the Heartless of all of those students. Looks like I can never get a full vacation, even after winning a Keyblade War.”

Riku had pulled out his Gummiphone while Roxas was talking. “Let’s not jump to conclusions. This new Keyblade wielder may not have been friendly, but he still did help Kairi. We can prepare ourselves, but we don’t have to assume we’re heading for another war. And just because none of us knew about these hidden Keyblade users doesn’t mean they were totally secret. I’m calling Aqua—maybe there was something about a secret sect of Keyblade users that Eraqus taught her, or at least was recorded somewhere in the Land of Departure. Everyone gather around.”

Everyone crowded around the Keyblade Master as his phone dialed Aqua’s, with the exception of the lesser Nobodies who disappeared. Kairi was fairly used to Nobodies suddenly being summoned to the location of a battle, but she figured now she had a reason to wonder where they went otherwise. Doubtless the former organization members would know, but she supposed it wasn’t worth asking about right now with everything else going on. However, Kairi soon realized she would have had time to ask when the call to Aqua failed to connect after twenty seconds of ringing.

Riku grit his teeth. “That’s not good. Hopefully it’s nothing major, but if Terra doesn’t pick this up we’re taking a Dark Corridor to the Land of Departure just to make sure.” Once again, his phone started dialing a number, but this time Terra’s face appeared after a few seconds. The older Keyblade wielder seemed a bit surprised to see everyone on the call, and Riku was quick to get to business before Terra could say anything.

“Terra, is everything okay over there? We called Aqua and she didn’t answer. We also didn’t get a response to the emergency message Xion sent out earlier.”

Terra sighed. “We’re all okay, and sorry for not responding. The thing is, we’re all stranded on this world at the moment. Aqua probably just turned her phone off while she’s locked in the library searching for a solution to that problem. Ven and I figured making you read us responding that we couldn’t make it to Twilight Town would just take away time you could be using to help fight the Heartless.”

Naminé interjected. “What do you mean, stranded? From what I read about your adventures ten years ago, you should all be able to open portals to the Lanes Between to travel between worlds.”

Kairi hadn’t realized Naminé had already taken the time to read through most of the files in Jiminy’s Journal, but Terra took the revelation in stride. “Well, that’s mostly correct. Aqua isn’t able to change Master Eraqus’s Keyblade into a glider, but even if she could that won’t help us much. You can’t just sail unprotected through the Lanes Between. Even if you manage to protect yourself from the darkness, you need something a bit stronger to deal with the cold and lack of oxygen. If you don’t have a ship, Keyblade armor is the way to go, but we’re out of luck with that. My armor got destroyed by the replica of my Xehanort-possessed body—not that I’m complaining since that needed to happen for me to regain control—and Ven gave his to Sora to protect him when Xehanort almost got him.”

Riku hung his head. “And then I shattered the armor when I fought off the last nightmare keeping him asleep. I didn’t realize what it was at the time, and now you’re stuck in the Land of Departure until we can help you. I know you said Aqua couldn’t get a glider, but could she use yours or Ven’s?”

Terra shook his head. “Her armor’s gone too. She used it to protect my body when she fell into the Realm of Darkness, and we have no idea what happened to it or her Keyblade since that point. She’s been locking herself in the library trying to find out how to forge herself a new Keyblade and forge everyone some armor. Unfortunately, there were lots of aspects of being a Keyblade master that Eraqus thought he would have plenty of time to teach us even after we earned the rank. That didn’t happen, and since ‘how to organize the library’ was one of those lessons the three of us have been going a bit crazy searching for useful information.”

Kairi hesitated to reveal the actual reason for her call, but realized she could offer some good news as well. “If nothing else, I can offer you an extra set of eyes to look over stuff. We’re focusing on learning how to open Dark Corridors here, and obviously I’m unable to open those. Unfortunately, there’s some more information we might need to find quickly. Would you happen to know about any other Keyblade masters in the world? There was an attack by a corrupted Keyblade wielder here, and then the master showed up and destroyed it. We don’t have any names, but he was wearing a yellow cloak and a cat mask.”

Terra’s eyes widened in shock. “What kind of cat? It wouldn’t have been a leopard, would it?”

Kairi raised an eyebrow. “I guess it could have been. I’m not exactly an expert on big cats, and he really didn’t stick around for very long before he disappeared. Why do you ask?”

Terra just sighed. “Because I have a pretty good idea of who that was, and if it was who I think it was things are a lot crazier than I thought. You know how Chirithy was an old friend of Ven’s? Turns out, ‘old’ is an understatement. At first, we thought it was from before Xehanort created Vanitas and gave Ven amnesia. But apparently, Chirithy knew Ven back before the first Keyblade War.”

Axel was the first person who was able to formulate words to express his surprise. “Wait, how does that work? I was just getting used to Ven being physically younger than me even though we’re the same age. Now he’s hundreds of years old? Is he just stuck as a teenager forever?”

Terra pinched the bridge of his nose. “We have no idea how it could happen. Ven has grown older in between when I first met him and now, so we don’t think it’s a case of immortality. But Chirithy insists the past Ven and this Ven are the same, and considering they have the same name, appearances, and Keyblades it’s hard to refute that. Right now, our best guess is that something happened in the past that allowed Ven to just reincarnate. It’s not like we can get any definitive answers between Ven’s amnesia and Chirithy apparently losing track of him between a bit after the formation of the worlds and him almost dying thanks to Xehanort extracting Vanitas.”

Isa interrupted. “While I’m sure Ansem the Wise and his other apprentices would love to delve into this mystery, we shouldn’t lose track of the reason for this conversation. What does the first Keyblade War have to do with a man in a leopard mask?”

Terra looked a bit squeamish. “Because the first Keyblade war wasn’t really a free-for-all. It was a conflict between the followers of five different Keyblade masters. One of these masters was named Gula, and he wore yellow robes and a leopard mask. If we accept that Ven was able to exist at that war and now, then it’s possible Gula did as well. And I don’t have enough information to know if having one of the masters who started a Keyblade War so soon after we just had one ourselves is a good thing or a bad thing.”

Kairi’s stomach dropped. “Was another one of these masters named Ava?” Terra nodded, and Kairi realized it might not have been just the Darkling that set off her feeling of dread for the future. “If we assume the man I met really is Gula, I don’t think it’s just him. He confused me for Ava at first, and implied he came here alongside a group. We might have more of these ancient masters running around, and without knowing why they started the first Keyblade War we can’t say for sure that they won’t try to start another one.”

Riku clenched his fists for a second before speaking in an authoritative tone. “No. We aren’t going to immediately assume that just because someone fought in a Keyblade War that they are our enemies. There have been hundreds of years for the story to be twisted, and Chirithy only has one version of events. I’m sure a hundred years from now someone will find a way to paint me as a villain for my role in the destruction of Destiny Islands and the second Keyblade War. Let’s not immediately panic. All we can do to prepare if they do end up being a threat is what we are already doing anyway: making sure we can travel more quickly between the worlds, recovering from our battles, learning new skills, and finding Sora. Let’s focus on that for now and take whatever else as it comes. I’m not going to ask everyone to put their lives on hold for a potential threat.”

Kairi took a few deep breaths to center herself and try to take the nervous edge off. When that didn’t work, she turned to Riku. “You’re right. Still, I feel like I should be doing something to help right now. Are you going to be sticking around here until you master the Dark Corridors? If so, I’m thinking I’ll go and help Aqua in the library for a bit. I can just have someone else make me a portal to go there since they don’t affect me, and you can pick me up when you and Naminé are ready to head back to the islands?”

Riku smiled. “Sounds good to me.” He then turned back to his phone. “Sounds like you’ll be getting some help soon, Terra. Would you mind giving Ven and Aqua a heads up? I don’t want them panicking when a dark corridor opens on your world.” Terra nodded and hung up, and as Riku put his Gummiphone back in his pocket he seemed to be struck with inspiration. “Actually, Kairi, just in case it takes longer than expected to master the corridors, I thought of another thing you could try while you’re there. I have an idea for you to be able to learn better resistance to the powers of darkness. I know you don’t have any darkness of your own to use, but what if you were to use some of mine?”

With this, Riku held out his hand, and Way to the Dawn appeared in his hand. He held out his old Keyblade to Kairi, but she just quirked an eyebrow at him. “Okay, I can see where using your Keyblade might let me use a little bit of darkness, but what if you end up needing your Keyblade here while I’m using it? Also, didn’t Way to the Dawn break when you went to save Aqua the first time? I thought that was the whole reason you used Braveheart now.”

Riku laughed. “Oh, my Way to the Dawn did break. But this one belonged to the other me. He had his own version of Way to the Dawn after I started using Braveheart, and when he chose to move on, he left his Keyblade to me. I can’t figure out how to use both at once like Roxas can, but I can use either one whenever I want. I figure if I lend you a Keyblade that’s more in tune with the powers of darkness, you might be able to use the power of the Keyblade instead of having to channel your own darkness. I think you’ll be able to summon it whenever you want if I let you borrow it, but we should probably test that now.”

Kairi grabbed the offered Keyblade, and as soon as her hand closed on the handle, she felt a spark of mixed emotions. There was the feeling of closeness with Riku that came from holding a weapon directly connected to his heart, but also a feeling of wrongness that was hard to place, yet familiar. It took her a second to remember where she had felt it before, but when she did, she realized it was the same feeling she had had about Riku the night before the islands fell to darkness. She supposed that made sense, considering the Riku Replica was originally created to take the powers of darkness Riku had originally used instead of the gentler darkness he commanded now.

Realizing she had been standing still staring at a Keyblade for a few seconds, Kairi quickly went through some tests. She dismissed Way to the Dawn, summoned Destiny’s Embrace, then dismissed her own Keyblade before resummoning Way to the Dawn. Content that she’d be able to call on the new weapon she was testing while still having access to her more familiar weapon in case it was needed, she finally turned back to her friends. “Seems like everything’s good to go. So, who wants to be my chaperone to the Land of Departure? I know the Corridors can be tricky to manage if the person who created the corridor doesn’t go through it.”

To Kairi’s surprise, it was Naminé who answered. “Actually, would you mind if I went with you? I might not be the best at making corridors, but I feel like I can be a lot more help at the Land of Departure than I am here.”

Kairi nodded at her former Nobody. “Sure, although we’ll probably have to switch outfits to do that. I’m not affected by travelling through dark corridors, but you’ll need protective clothes. Good thing we’re the same size.”

Isa coughed. “Actually, that may not be necessary. If Xion is willing to let you borrow her coat, I can grab that right away.” When Xion nodded, Isa reached into a fold in his cloak and pulled out another cloak.

Axel snorted at his long-time friend. “Are you seriously such a stickler for the rules that you carry everyone else’s uniforms on you at all times? No wonder you got hired directly into a manager position.”

Isa rolled his eyes. “While normally I would report you for insubordination, I believe I can let you in on a little secret. It’s quite easy to hide a small dark corridor in your pocket if you need to extend the storage capacity of your pockets. And when I heard there was a massive Heartless attack, I made sure to grab protective gear for Roxas and Xion since they were wearing civilian clothes.”

Naminé took a little bit to fit her poofy dress underneath the organization cloak, but when that was done, she held out her arm and formed a portal after a few seconds. Once the two of them walked into the corridor and the entry portal closed behind them, Kairi turned to her counterpart. “I’m sorry that all of this had to happen to you on your moving day. Still, I’m glad you are able to do more fighting for yourself now. When did you learn how to use combat magic?”

Naminé blushed. “Olette was curious and wanted Xion to give her lessons. I sat in on those, and while Olette still hasn’t picked anything up, I’ve at least got Fire, Thunder, and Blizzard down. I even accidentally figured out how to cast Haste and Slow while working on them. Unfortunately, I don’t have them fully under control yet, so I still end up getting some backlash from my spells.”

Kairi laughed. “Oh, I know exactly what that’s like. You wouldn’t believe how many outfits I ruined trying to master my magic. It was almost as many as Axel burned through whenever I ended up being too slow to dodge. I’m not sure if we can directly contact Flora, Fauna, and Merryweather to have them get you an enchanted outfit like I have, but I’m sure we can leave a message with Yen Sid to pass on to them. It really helps to have an outfit that’s magically resilient to more than just darkness.”

Naminé smiled. “Thank you so much. In addition to that, do you think I could ask you for another huge favor? I know you’ll be working with the other Riku’s Keyblade for training, but when you are, do you think I could borrow yours? I should be able to use a Keyblade since I came from you and Sora, and I want to be able to help out in fights so I’m not leaving everything to Riku and you. Maybe if I get used to how to use a Keyblade it will be easier for me to get my own someday.”

Kairi saw the end of the corridor coming up and could make out the form of the castle in the Land of Departure coming at them. “Alright, take Destiny’s Embrace. I’m going to hit up the library first, but I’m sure the Land of Departure has plenty of things set up for Keyblade training. Take as much time as you need.”


	3. Land of Departure

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kairi and Namine head to the Land of Departure for some spring cleaning, Keyblade practice, and lore lessons. But trouble is already brewing on another world...

Kairi strode out into the Mountain Path and reasoned she should at least be glad she’d be able to get some training in with Way to the Dawn. That seemed to be the only positive experience she could personally take out of this trip. Her time researching in the Land of Departure’s library hadn’t turned up anything helpful in terms of creating new Keyblade armor or helping someone get their own Keyblade. She did find something that would theoretically be helpful when she stumbled on notes from what must have been a young Xehanort and Eraqus where they had learned to both make copies of and edit their own Keyblade Armors to fit certain situations, but Eraqus’s notes were hard to read and some of Xehanort’s notes were a bit beyond Kairi’s understanding. In theory Aqua might be able to decipher and understand everything, but that would still require there being an original set of armor to work with.

Still, she supposed that small victory was better than what Ven had managed. He had found instructions for a Cyclone spell, and since he already had multiple wind element attacks he had been eager to master this new technique. Unfortunately, he had sneezed right into the middle of casting it, sending a maelstrom throughout the library sending years of documents and dust flying around. By the end of it, Aqua had banished Ven from the library and while she sounded polite when asking Kairi to leave as well the golden tinge that flashed through her eyes made Kairi realize it was for the best to leave the Keyblade master alone for some time. She had been hoping to learn the secret of creating multiple wavelengths of light that Aqua could use in her Prism Rain, but it wasn’t worth annoying someone who was already dealing with a rough day just to get a new technique she could pick up later.

When she arrived at the rings set up as training dummies for Keyblade practice, she noticed Naminé holding Destiny’s Embrace in an overhead grip that perfectly mimicked that of a certain dark-affiliated Keyblade master. Kairi smiled, but knew she shouldn’t comment. Nobody had called out that her own preferred Keyblade style just happened to copy Sora’s, and with Naminé being shyer than her she knew any teasing wouldn’t be appreciated. She just nodded at the future Keyblade wielder and started her own practice with the other set of hanging rings. What followed was a few minutes where the only noises were the sound of Keyblades impacting on the targets. Out of curiosity, Kairi tried to see what would happen if she tried to enter Lightcharge with a darkness-aligned Keyblade. The Keyblade did get coated with an aura, but it was mainly darkness instead of light. It probably wasn’t as strong as the darkness anybody else would have been able to use, but Kairi was happy that her newly-named Shadowcharge at least gave her some options.

Kairi had been so focused on her training that she practically jumped when Ven’s voice interrupted her. “Wow, that’s so cool! I always thought I didn’t have a choice between light and darkness after Xehanort split me, but I guess it’s not as impossible as I thought. Not that I’d really want to use darkness all the time, but it would be cool to be able to summon a different Keyblade if I needed it…”

If Ven—and the silent Terra—‘s appearances were a shock to the two practicing Keyblade users, the sudden appearance of a different Keyblade in Ven’s hand shocked everyone. Kairi thought the black Keyblade with red outlines and a gear theme looked vaguely familiar, but Terra and Ven were staring at it in horror. Terra was the first person to find his voice.

“Well, unless I’m hallucinating Void Gear in your hands, Ven, I think we know what happened to Vanitas. When he died, part of his darkness must have returned to you. Although, was it always red trimmed? I think I remember it being black and white…but wait, that was at the Keyblade Graveyard, and I think that’s my armor’s memory? I’m almost jealous that you just slept through the missing decade instead of having these strange memories from different sources since my soul, heart, and body are all different ages.”

Ven dismissed Void Gear and summoned Wayward Wind before he seemed to calm down. “Okay, really could have gone without seeing that ever again, but at least it wasn’t the X-Blade. Still hard to believe I’ve been there three different times that was summoned. I’d say three Keyblade Wars, but I think our skirmish twelve years ago was small enough not to count…”

Hoping to distract Ven from his focus on some darker times on his life and satisfy her own curiosity on seeing Ven’s Keyblade, Kairi addressed the wielder who was physically the same age as her despite being chronologically much older. “Hey Ven, not to change the subject, but seeing Wayward Wind just reminded me of something Terra told us over the phone.” She nodded at the older wielder before continuing. “According to him, Wayward Wind is the same Keyblade Chirithy said you used back around the original Keyblade War. Is there a way to tell that? Apart from the design, I don’t see any difference between it and my Keyblade which would be a lot younger. I know Keyblades can be depowered or broken, but yours doesn’t seem to have any special wear and tear on it.”

Ventus dismissed his Keyblade and put his hands behind his head in the gesture he had unknowingly passed on to Sora. “Well, I’m not sure it’s physically the exact same, but it’s still the same Keyblade. It might be, but the thing that makes them the same is in both time periods they grew into the same form.”

Seeing Kairi’s blank stare, Ven continued. “Right, sorry, I keep forgetting your group started from scratch and had to figure out everything on your own. If it weren’t for Xehanort, Terra, Aqua, and I would have probably taken you under our wings and given you formal lessons. Part of our formal training involved being given a sort of starter Keyblade that would grow alongside our own growth and eventually grow into our own weapons. Do you remember the Keyblade that Terra’s armor used?”

On Kairi’s nod, Terra took over the explanation and summoned Earthshaker. “You’ll notice this is slightly different. This is Earthshaker, and it’s what I used when I first left the Land of Departure trying to track down Xehanort and Vanitas. Along the journey, it grew into Ends of the Earth, which I used when Xehanort took my body. That’s why my armor used the upgraded form. Then I finally found my way back and completed myself, but that took a lot out of me. It’s like I’m starting over in some ways, which is why I’m back to using Earthshaker now.”

Ven picked back up. “The three of us—and probably King Mickey based on Star Cluster’s similarity to Star Seeker—all started with nameless Keyblades that grew into their current forms. Apparently in ancient times everyone started out with one called Starlight. According to Chirithy, in the past my Starlight changed into Wayward Wind and then again into one called Missing Ache. If my darkness really has returned, Wayward Wind probably will return to that form. Last time, it grew into Lost Memories when Vanitas confronted me and revealed his origin.”

Terra looked at Ven in confusion. “Wait, they can grow into different forms? I really hope Aqua is able to keep Stormfall then. She was really cut up about losing it.”

Now it was Ven’s turn to look confused. “When did Aqua tell her the name of her Keyblade? She told me about it the night before we got you back, but she really didn’t like talking about it. I haven’t heard her refer to it by name since then.”

Kairi noticed a slight blush dust Terra’s cheeks. “Listen, Ven. You know how we have an agreement not to tell Aqua about certain adventures of ours? Sometimes Aqua and I also have things we need to keep secret. I’m not going to betray her trust by telling you any more details until she’s okay with it.”

Ven took a few seconds to process this fact. “I guess that’s fair, but try not to keep me out of everything this time around. I may still be younger than you, but I am technically 28 now. And if I ever remember anything about what happened way in the past, I might be able to claim that I’m hundreds of years old, so don’t treat me like a kid.”

Terra laughed. “Alright, but I reserve the right to still make jokes about things that aren’t serious. Also, if you ever find out anything cool from way back in the old days, please let me know about it.”

Kairi sighed. “I can’t imagine what you’re going through, Ven. It’s bad enough that I lost my memories of basically everything since I was five, but you’ve got multiple lifetimes to try and recover. I wish you the best of luck.”

Ven looked like he was about to respond, but Naminé interrupted. “Wait a minute, why don’t we actually try to go out and get some answers? It might not help with Ven, but it sounds like everything else might be cleared up with a trip to Radiant Garden. Anybody who knew Kairi as a little kid would be on that world, and it’s the last place we know Aqua’s Keyblade and armor were.”

Kairi blinked. “I know it sounds simple, but I don’t really know if we have much to go on. Riku and Mickey already went to the scene where Xehanort was found with amnesia on Radiant Garden, and it’s not like we know anything about me other than I was a kid with red hair over a decade ago and I lived with my Grandma…who had access to the castle library! And if anybody would know what happened to the armor found when Xehanort was, it would be Ansem or his apprentices who lived in the castle at the time! Naminé, you’re a genius! I think we have Ienzo’s number on our Gummiphones—let’s give him a call!”

Kairi was quick to act on her excited revelation, forcing everyone else to gather around her as she dialed the number. After a few rings, a slightly harried-looking Ienzo appeared on the screen. “Kairi—and Terra and Ven. To what do I owe the unexpected call?”

Since she was the one who initiated the call, Kairi took the opportunity to answer. “We think we might have a lead on how to make armor that can withstand the Lanes Between, which will help these two and Aqua be able to travel through the worlds again. Is this a bad time?”

Kairi’s question seemed moot when she noticed a Large Body appear behind Ienzo, only for it to immediately be crushed by a giant boulder. The former Organization member didn’t seem bothered by the intrusion behind him. “We have run into a few lingering problems as we clean out the last bits of the castle, but we have this well in hand. Is there something I can do to help you with this lead?”

This time, Terra jumped in. “Were you one of Ansem’s apprentices when Xehanort arrived in Radiant Garden in my body? He would have had Aqua’s Keyblade armor with him at that time. We need to track it down to make other suits, and all we know is Aqua sent it back with my body to the Realm of Light when she fell into the Realm of Darkness.”

“I wasn’t formally an apprentice yet, but I was Ansem’s ward and I do remember that day. There were quite a few studies done on the armor at first as Xehanort tried to find any clue about his past, but eventually it just got locked up in storage. It must have become one of the many things that disappeared at some point though, because we’ve scoured all but one room in the castle trying to ensure no more dangers can come from here and not found anything.”

Ven pointed out the obvious. “Wait, if you scoured all but one room, what says it isn’t in that last room? And why would you ignore it, anyway?”

Ienzo sighed. “Because the only room we haven’t searched is the Chamber of Repose, and that was Xemnas’s inner sanctum. Even when we were loyal to the Organization nobody but him was trusted with access, and that room is completely sealed off now that he’s gone.”

Ven nodded, then stopped. “Wait, Chamber of Repose? Is that anything like the Chamber of Waking? Apparently, I slept there the whole time home was turned into Castle Oblivion. Bit strange that I never woke up in the Chamber of Waking…”

Ienzo lowered his head in thought. “They are a pair, but…” His eyes widened as he resumed in a more excited tone. “That’s it! I just remembered a conversation I had with Xigbar. He had a nasty habit of eavesdropping, and claimed Xemnas would go to the Chamber of Repose to talk with a friend. It always struck me as strange that Xemnas would consider anybody a friend, especially since he didn’t bother to try the façade of emotion. But Xigbar claimed Xemnas had another friend in the Chamber of Waking. Maybe there was some part of Terra still present in Xemnas—and if you were in the Chamber of Waking, it stands to reason that the other friend of his in the Chamber of Repose would be Aqua—or at least, something connected to her. We may actually have a location for her armor—it’s just too bad we aren’t able to get into the room.”

Naminé timidly spoke up. “When you say the room is sealed, is that something that a Keyblade could unlock? I know it works on any ordinary locks and things like hearts, but I’m not sure if there are any limits to what counts as ‘unlocking’ and what doesn’t.”

When that just brought a shrug from Terra and Ven, who were the two people most qualified to answer the question thanks to their formal Keyblade training, Kairi just rolled her eyes. “Well, I don’t see how knowing if it will work or not now makes a difference. Why don’t we just take a dark corridor over to Radiant Garden and give it a shot?”

Ienzo ducked as another Large Body flew over his head on a massive gust of wind. He then straightened up and resumed the conversation as if nothing strange was happening. “That could work, although I would request not appearing directly in the castle or in its grounds. While the Restoration Committee is willing to tolerate our presence as long as we work to atone for our role in the destruction of our world, the rest of the population hasn’t quite extended us the same courtesy. If word gets out that we were consorting with someone who used a dark corridor, they may decide keeping us confined to the castle isn’t punishment enough and attempt to take justice into their own hands—”

Ienzo paused as he summoned his Lexicon and trapped a Bookmaster within it before continuing. “It’s probably for the best if you were to appear more in line with the new City Hall or Merlin’s House and then walk here. Better you are seen as an ally of the government checking up on us instead of being seen as a potential threat. Plus, that will give us time to finish our bit of spring cleaning.”

Judging by the continued sounds of battle in the background, Kairi had to doubt what was happening was what anybody would consider a usual chore. “Are you sure you don’t want any help? I know Radiant Garden has the whole defense system, and your time in the Organization probably made you ready to fight off the Heartless, but we’d be happy to add a Keyblade or two to the fight.”

Kairi glanced to Naminé to see if the future Keyblade wielder would be up to get some more combat experience with a Keyblade under her belt, but before she could ask anything Ienzo continued. “No, we’ll be quite alright. It wouldn’t really be atoning for our mistakes if we just let other people clean up our messes, and this last contingent of Heartless is far from serious enough to be a huge threat. Just swing by in about an hour and we’ll be ready to go into the Chamber of Repose. Now, was there anything else I can help you with?”

Kairi shrugged. “Nothing too important, but I guess I have more of a personal request. I know I’m originally from Radiant Garden, but that’s all I really know. I was hoping to find out more about my past, but the only thing I can remember is talking with my grandma in the castle library. She was a short old lady who wore a purple dress with a white apron. Do you have any memories of her or me from around twelve years ago?”

“Well, that was the uniform of the castle staff so I can’t be sure, but you might be talking about Lady Ava. She was the librarian and told me all sorts of—” The sound of cracking ice interrupted the former Cloaked Schemer and a hard glint came to his eyes. “I have to go—sounds like Even needs help protecting Master Ansem.”

With that, Ienzo hung up without even taking time to realize the name he had casually dropped had sent the four members on the other end of the call into shock. They all just stared at the phone for a few seconds before Kairi squeaked out, “This has to all be a coincidence, right? Did an ancient Keyblade master confuse me for my grandma?”

Terra put his hand on Kairi’s shoulder. “I wouldn’t worry about it too much. Let’s say for the sake of argument that it is true. Why would these ancient Keyblade wielders all travel to the future with one group showing up now, Ven showing up more than twenty years ago, and Ava showing up long enough ago that she could have grandchildren? Does it really make a difference? Regardless of who your family was, you’re still going to be the same person. Where you come from doesn’t define you nearly as much as where you choose to go.”

Ven joined in with a smile. “Besides, it’s far more likely that it’s connected in a different way. Ava was the one who created the Dandelions—the Keyblade wielders who would ensure the light could be protected beyond the Keyblade War. Radiant Garden was known as the city of light back in our days, so I can imagine when it first reformed after the worlds were separated the Dandelions would have played a big role in forming it. It’s not much of a stretch to think Ava would be a popular name for the daughters of the people she had saved, and then you’d probably get cases of later generations being named Ava after their ancestors. Seems a lot more likely than there being a different form of time travel that doesn’t seem to follow any particular rules.”

Naminé grabbed onto Kairi’s hand. “How about we head over to Radiant Garden now? I know we need to give Ienzo time, but it might be good to talk with Leon and the others anyway.” Kairi took a few seconds to compose herself before nodding to her former Nobody. She then said goodbye to Terra and Ven with promises to be back soon—and hopefully with Aqua’s armor and Keyblade—before she headed into the swirling portal of darkness headed to her one-time home.


	4. Radiant Garden

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kairi and Namine head to Radiant Garden for some answers, but end up finding two separate battles.

Kairi stepped out of the dark corridor into a plaza decorated with a large series of fountains. She took a second just to take in the sight—apparently, this is what part of her original homeland had looked like. While she had technically been to this world only a couple of years ago, Hollow Bastion couldn’t really compare to the experience of standing in Radiant Garden. Kairi wasn’t so sure if she was actually remembering something about these fountains or she was just convincing herself that something seemed familiar.

Kairi was lost in her thoughts until Naminé screamed “Look out!” Unsure of where the danger was coming from, Kairi raised her barrier and hoped it would be enough to withstand whatever the danger was. She heard a clang behind her and spun around to see a large shuriken ricocheting towards one of the fountains. Recognizing the weapon, she let out a sigh of relief.

“Yuffie, be careful where you throw that! I know I grabbed the last piece of Merlin’s cake the last time we hung out together, but I don’t think that’s worth attacking me two years later for it!”

The self-proclaimed great ninja caught her deflected shuriken before disappearing and reappearing at Kairi’s side in a puff of smoke. “Well, excuse me, Red. As a duly-appointed councilwoman of Radiant Garden, it’s my duty to defend my world so it won’t fall again. And with all the Xehanorts running around, can you blame me for thinking anything coming out of an unexpected Dark Corridor might be a threat worth attacking?”

Kairi could only stare at the kunoichi in confusion. “Wait, what do you mean all the Xehanorts running around? Didn’t anybody tell you we stopped him, and the Keyblade War is over?”

The hyperactive ninja screamed in frustration. “What, seriously? You fought a whole Keyblade War and never thought to tell any of us? Our only update from Merlin was that you and Lea had finished your training and were getting ready. I know none of us have Keyblades, but we still could have helped! Even if there’s some special ‘only a Keyblade can beat Xehanort’ rule, I’m sure there were plenty of Heartless around that we could have taken care of.”

Kairi remembered the giant swarms of Heartless that would have stopped them from even getting to Xehanort if it hadn’t been for the intervention of all the Keyblades in the Graveyard or Master Yen Sid and couldn’t help but think that Yuffie had a very good point. “I’m sorry nobody told you everything—I just assumed Yen Sid was taking care of it. I guess we were all too focused on getting all of our Keyblade wielders ready that we didn’t think to send out an update. You’re right that we really could have used the help—there were a lot of very close calls…”

Sensing herself veering down too dark of a path, Kairi quickly changed the subject. “But enough about that. So, you’re a councilwoman now? I wasn’t aware that there were official titles in the Restoration Committee.”

Yuffie laughed. “Oh, there aren’t. But once we finally got this city back in working order and people started moving back in, we had to establish a more official sort of government. It would have been great if we could reinstate Ansem as king, but when people found out the truth of what caused the world’s fall it was all we could do to just put Ansem and his apprentices under house arrest. The people insisted on the kingship going to Leon, but he at least managed to talk them down to mayor since it’s only the city that’s back to what it was and not the rest of the world. We also set up a world council, even though it’s practically the same as the Restoration Committee since we all won seats in the election.”

Naminé interjected. “Sorry to interrupt, but I wasn’t aware Ansem or Leon were royalty. Also, I don’t think we’ve officially met. I’m Naminé, and I was Kairi’s Nobody. I worked with Ansem for a little bit before rejoining her, and I just got my own body a few days ago.”

Yuffie smiled and held out her fist, only for Naminé to stare at it. Seeing the other girl’s confusion, the ninja just chuckled as she explained. “Sorry, I’m originally from the Wutai province. It was a customary greeting to bump fists there, and I guess I picked it up myself. In case Kairi didn’t tell you about me, my name’s Yuffie Kisaragi. It’s nice to finally meet you—Ansem and his apprentices told us about you before.”

Understanding lit up Naminé’s face, and she finally returned the fist bump. Yuffie then continued answering her original implied question. “As for the question about royalty, I suppose Radiant Garden is a bit different than some other worlds out there. Even though we call—or I guess for now called—our ruler a king or queen, it wasn’t the typical inherited position. I guess it was until a bit over a century ago, but then the queen of that time decided the ruling position should go to the person who could best lead instead of always being passed within a single family. The old royal family still kept the titles of prince and princess, but all the power transferred to the new leader. Ansem was the most recent king, and Leon is practically the new one even if he doesn’t want to be.”

Thinking of her own feelings about being a Princess of Heart, Kairi knew what it was like to have a role forced upon you. “Well, hopefully Leon is able to cope with everything. It can’t be easy leading a town when you don’t want to do it.”

Yuffie just sighed. “Tell me about it. Being a politician is so draining, and it’s hard to find something to take your mind off of work. I’ve lost count of how many guys ended up treating me differently because apparently there’s a difference between going on a fun date with Yuffie and trying to go on a date with Councilwoman Kisaragi…” She trailed off as an evil gleam came to her eye. “Speaking of which, since the Keyblade War is apparently over, have you kissed Sora yet? I’m trying to live vicariously through my friends, but Cloud is practically running away from Tifa, Leon is still hung up on…”

Kairi had noticed Naminé wince out of the corner of her eye as soon as Sora was mentioned, but that must have been a much smaller reaction than the pain showing through on her face because Yuffie glanced at her and immediately shut up. Not wanting to leave her friend wondering what figurative land mine she had stepped on, Kairi bit the bullet and started explaining. “The Keyblade War didn’t go so well for all of us. We all lost our hearts, and Sora used his power to save everyone. Then Xehanort killed me, and Sora reused that power to change history so it didn’t happen. He faded away as the price for that, but I know he’s out there somewhere and I’m not going to just sit around waiting for him. This time, I’m saving him instead.”

Kairi wasn’t sure if she was saying this more to reassure Yuffie or herself, but the ninja pulled her into a hug anyway. “You may have dibs on saving him, but don’t think you’re doing this alone. We may not have helped with the Keyblade War, but if Sora ever shows his face in Radiant Garden, we’ll let you know. And I’m not just talking about this city—we’re slowly expanding to old settlements like Nibelheim and Balamb, and wherever we go after that we’ll always make sure to keep an eye open. Now, why don’t we get to city hall so everyone can get the full story?”

* * *

Kairi and Naminé walked in silence through the corridors of Radiant Garden’s castle, with Aeleus leading the way. The quiet guardsman hadn’t said anything other than an apology to Naminé for not doing anything to help her out in Castle Oblivion and then instructing the two young women to follow him. The walk gave time for Kairi to reflect on the events of the meeting at city hall, which in some ways was productive and in some ways was heartbreaking.

She had been able to update every member of the committee—with the exception of Cloud and Tifa who were off investigating rumors of Sephiroth in the ruins of their old home of Nibelheim—about the events and aftermath of the Keyblade War. At least now she could be certain her allies wouldn’t get attacked immediately if they came through a dark corridor, considering only Xigbar, Luxord, Marluxia, and Larxene’s Somebodies were unaccounted for. Demyx wouldn’t be a threat unless he was provoked, and every other former Organization member had either become their allies or, in the case of the time-travelling Xehanorts, couldn’t be a problem anymore after there was no longer a Xehanort in this time for them to travel to.

However, the bittersweet moment had to come when Tron cut in over the computer that there was data in the main castle’s computer that could help find Sora. However, the data was so fragmented that it would take time to access it, even with Cid and Tron working together. Tron had then revealed an additional helper—via the Gummiphone network he had been able to link with the computers in Disney Castle to bring the version of Sora from the datascape to Radiant Garden. In some ways it was great seeing Sora again—but it hurt knowing that this wasn’t  _ her _ Sora. Data Sora was just as much an individual with his own existence as Roxas or Xion were, but it was much harder to get her heart to accept that when she could only see Sora’s face and hear Sora’s voice from the data being.

At least that awkward meeting hadn’t needed to last long before Data Sora went to try and help Tron clear out some of the corruption in the data. With a few more minutes to burn before Ienzo’s one-hour suggestion had elapsed, Kairi instead tried to see if she could track down any of her own personal history in this world. However, with so little to go on, she hadn’t been able to make any progress. She had been hoping to find information about her as a child that she could use to track the rest of her family, but the last official census had been taken around six years before the fall of Radiant Garden. She was hoping it would have been after she had been born, as then she’d at least be able to narrow down potential family members by looking at every Kairi that would have been in her approximate age range. Now she’d just be searching blindly, especially since only around a third of the pre-fall population was accounted for and nobody reported any red-headed children or teens missing.

Kairi had been so lost in her own thoughts that she didn’t notice Aeleus had stopped in front of her, and she bumped into the castle guard. It felt like walking into a wall, and as Kairi tried to clear her head she noticed she was in the main computer terminal room of the castle. Ienzo was standing by the computer working on something until Naminé spoke up.

“Hi Ienzo. Aren’t we supposed to be at the Chamber of Repose? Why did you have us meet you at the main computer?”

Ienzo turned to his visitors. “Oh, hello again Kairi and Naminé. I was just sending over any of our data to the main government. It’s a bit hard with the firewall, but luckily Tron is able to help speed things along. Anyway, this computer is actually needed to access the Chamber of Repose. Back before we realized the error of our ways, Master Ansem constructed a secret passage so our research could be hidden until we were ready to reveal it. We need to enter the seven passwords to make the ramp open.”

Kairi summoned Destiny’s Embrace. “Well, I’m not sure if a Keyblade can do passwords, but I guess it’s kind of locked now so it’s worth a shot.”

Tron’s voice interrupted. “Please don’t. My world exists within this computer. I believe multiple User worlds fell to danger when their hearts were open for the Heartless to invade. I wouldn’t want my world to be unlocked just to access this ramp when I should be able to establish admin privileges to change the passwords myself.”

Ienzo placed one of his hands on his chin. “Fascinating. However, that won’t be necessary. The Chamber of Repose isn’t the only thing at the bottom of the ramp. It also contains all the holding cells from our earlier experiments. As such, all of the former apprentices know the passwords. Not that they are difficult to remember, since they are just our names. Well, the first password is “ANOTHER” which Xehanort loved as his own anagram without an X that he then decided to co-opt into naming Nobodies, and we did switch up the order in an effort to increase security, but it was mainly to stop Ansem from discovering we were continuing forbidden research.”

Something about Ienzo’s description triggered a memory about a story Axel had told her while training together. “You mentioned this led to holding cells, right? You may want to rethink the passwords. I’m pretty sure Axel and Isa had them figured out before they became apprentices—Axel mentioned they would sneak down to visit a girl in one of the cells.”

Ienzo sighed. “While that’s good to know, we aren’t planning on ever continuing any experiments down there, so the poor security is a moot point.” Ienzo then grabbed a black and white patterned disk and inserted it into the computer. After he typed in seven passwords, Kairi heard the sound of machinery whirring in the next room. Ienzo just smiled. “There, the way is now open. I can accompany you down to the door—we do still have a bit of a walk to get us there.”

Kairi and Naminé followed the scientist and saw he wasn’t kidding. Panels on the floor had opened to reveal a ramp leading downwards that spiraled so far Kairi couldn’t make out the bottom. Kairi pondered if she would be able to save time just by jumping down the center, but realized it wouldn’t work out. She may have ways to handle safely landing from long falls, but Naminé and Ienzo likely didn’t. All she would do is make herself wait at the bottom of the ramp for the others to catch up, which really wasn’t worth cutting out some walking.

Ienzo seemed to pick up on the thoughts of his followers. “Yes, I agree that the ramp is ridiculously long. It had to be built this way though in order for no signs of our experiments to reach the surface. Once we mastered Dark Corridors it made the commute much easier, but by that point we spent most of our time in the World that Never Was anyway. However, this does give us some time to talk as we walk. I believe you wanted to know more about your grandmother?”

Kairi stopped. “Wait, you know she was actually my grandmother?”

Ienzo turned to face her. “Well, not with 100% certainty. However, it seems like the most logical assumption. You know that you had a grandmother who worked as part of the castle staff in the library. I know that the castle librarian would tell me stories about her granddaughter named Kairi. While there’s no guarantee these are the same instances—Kairi may not have been the most popular name but it wasn’t particularly rare either—it seems like the simplest solution is the most likely to be true.”

Kairi guessed this was the most likely lead, so it wouldn’t hurt to dig further. “Did she survive through the fall? Or do you know of any other of her family members that might be around?”

Ienzo sighed. “I’m not sure if she survived the fall or not, but if she did, she hasn’t responded to any of the efforts to try and take an accurate count of the population. Some people did flee from the city when it came back—presumably because they believed they would be safer when they weren’t living at what was once ground zero—or she may just have decided to hide her identity. She was a member of the old royal family, and she may have chosen to avoid public appearances for fear of what certain sections of the population would do. We caused an apocalypse, and there were some people who took advantage before the Committee could restore order…”

Kairi didn’t really bother paying attention to Ienzo’s words after a point. “Wait, she was from the royal family? Does that mean I would be a princess? I mean, a regular princess and not a Princess of Heart?”

Ienzo scoffed. “Well, yes, technically. However, I don’t know if you would have felt as excited about it had we not ruined this world. On meeting your grandmother, I thought it was impressive that she was a princess, but she wasn’t happy with the idea that she was given special treatment just because her great-aunt happened to be a queen. Considering she would have lived through the Shinra revolts that tried to restore the monarchy, I think she was happy to let the royal title fade away.”

Naminé just looked confused. “Shinra revolts? What are those? It sounds familiar—I feel like I’ve heard the term before…”

Ienzo realized he had started getting off topic. “They were an organized uprising led by a private backer hoping to install a government that would be more lenient on his business. You may have heard of them from Vexen—Even’s father worked for that company. But I realize you aren’t here for a history lesson about Radiant Garden, and I’m probably not the best person to teach that anyway. Unfortunately, while I did know Lady Ava, I can’t say I knew her well. She did tell me a lot of stories about her granddaughter who loved giving everyone flowers, though, so it’s safe to say she loved you dearly.”

With this, the group finally arrived at the bottom of the ramp, and Kairi could sense a change in Ienzo’s demeanor. He hesitated before a set of double doors before making them slide open, revealing a black-tiled hallway with cell doors on each side. As they walked past, Kairi could see through the small barred windows that each cell was far less spacious than hers had been in the World that Never Was. However, the more ominous cells lacked any windows at all and were further chained shut, leaving Kairi no doubt that the former residents were subjected to worse treatment. She could understand Ienzo’s trepidation at entering a location that stood as physical proof of all the worst things he had ever done.

However, the most ominous room by far stood at the end of the hallway, where a large set of double doors were chained shut and sealed with a giant version of the Nobody emblem. Kairi felt a sort of static electricity by the entrance, and as Ienzo approached the door his hair began standing up. “As you can see, there is quite a powerful seal on it that only Xemnas can approach. Perhaps it counts as lock, so it might be worth trying to unlock it.

Taking that as her cue, Kairi summoned Destiny’s Embrace and pointed it at the Nobody symbol. A beam of light shot from the tip of the weapon, and the chains started retracting from the door as the Nobody emblem faded away and the static feeling left the air. The doors then opened and Kairi could make out the back of a white throne in the center of a circular room with chains adorning the walls. Closer inspection revealed the hint of something blue and metallic behind the throne, and thinking she had found Aqua’s armor she took a step forward. However, that single step prompted the chain on the walls to begin rattling threateningly while a harsh moaning filled the air. A strange mass began wiggling down from the ceiling, with the moans groaning louder until the creature in the chains was revealed. It looked much like the Sorcerer class of Nobody, except it was chained upside down to the ceiling and it was wearing a white robe with black designs over it, similar to what Kairi remembered Riku describing Xemnas wearing.

Ienzo seemed particularly shocked at the new figure. “The Crores Rex? I thought Xemnas destroyed you?” Kairi was so focused on the new figure and Ienzo’s apparent familiarity with it that she didn’t notice the four Sorcerers appearing elsewhere in the room until they launched their cubes at the group and sent her, Naminé, and Ienzo reeling back outside the chamber. A small contingent of Dusks spawned to back up the other Nobodies, but a series of strange moans from the chained figure seemed to order them to a new location. The Dusks and Sorcerers vanished, but not before the Sorcerers sent out a series of tiny cubes that locked together into a wall blocking the chamber’s entrance. Staring at the wall that shimmered as the cubes switched between red, blue, black, and white quickly gave Kairi a headache, so she turned towards Ienzo.

“Okay, since you seemed to know the name of that thing, would you care to explain what just happened?”

Ienzo shook off the results of the latest attack to explain. “That was the Crores Rex, one of Xemnas’s early failed experiments at creating an Organization member directly from a lesser Nobody. It did become stronger than a typical Sorcerer and able to command other Nobodies, but it also tried to rebel against Xemnas himself. We all believed Xemnas destroyed it, but I guess he kept it chained in the Chamber of Repose as punishment instead. I’m not sure why it’s trying to guard the chamber now, but if this wall was made by the four Sorcerers that left, we should be able to get through by defeating all four. They can’t maintain this barrier from too great of a distance, so they must still be within the city somewhere. Why don’t you go take care of them? I’ll stay here to let the council know about the threat and keep the Crores Rex busy once the barrier comes down.”

Kairi and Naminé started to turn back towards the ramp, but Ienzo shook his head as he started dialing on his phone. “Wait one moment. In light of the situation, I may be able to create a corridor for you to easily get to the surface and return here.”

Cid must have answered Ienzo’s call, as the researcher put his phone on speaker as he started talking. “Councilman Highwind, I’m warning you about a complication we discovered in the Chamber of Repose. You may notice your security system dealing with—”

“Some goddamn snakes?” Kairi blinked at the gruff mechanic’s answer, and Ienzo seemed confused as well.

“No, a few Sorcerers and Dusks escaped to the surface. Why would you think snakes were involved?”

“Because for the past few minutes, a bunch of glowing snakes have appeared throughout the town! The new security system seems to think they’re a threat, but every time it blasts them the bastards just grow bigger! We had to turn the system off, and I’m about to get the  _ Shera _ into the sky to see if they like this brand of firepow—okay, who went and let the motherfucking snakes into my motherfucking ship?”

Kairi wasn’t sure how Cid had managed to win an election if he so easily spiraled into profanity, but Ienzo seemed more used to the mechanic’s quirks. “Well, I may be able to send you a Keyblade Wielder to help with the problem, but it will take some time for her to get there. Unless you are willing, in your position as a councilman, to grant a temporary override to allow me to create a Dark Corridor?”

“Well, glad to see my good old-fashioned spear can take these scaly bastards out still. And why are you trying to schmooze me like a politician? You want to make a Dark Corridor to help, then make your damn corridor!” Cid then hung up while continuing to scream profanities, leaving Ienzo to shrug his shoulders.

“Well, I’d say that sounds like permission to me. I’ll create a corridor to send you to city hall—from there, it will probably be easiest to figure out where you need to go since someone will be keeping track of the town’s defenses. I’ll leave the corridor open so you can just come back here as soon as I call you that the barrier is down. I know that we’ve got a new enemy attacking, but I think we have to focus on taking out the very large threat in this room before it sends out more forces.”

Kairi and Naminé agreed with the hastily constructed plan, and as soon as Ienzo created a portal they immediately ran through it. However, they may have been a little too quick to run through, as they found themselves staring down the business end of Leon’s gunblade. The newly appointed mayor lowered his weapon once he realized who his visitors were. “Okay, I know you said you could be using Dark Corridors, but I didn’t expect you to pop out of one in the command center in the middle of a crisis.”

Naminé was quick to respond. “Cid gave us permission, and we thought it best to get somewhere where we could find out where we are needed instead of running around at random.”

Leon quirked an eyebrow. “Wait, ‘we’? I was under the impression only one of you had a Keyblade. Unless you’re as practiced as Merlin, I don’t recommend fighting only with magic.”

Kairi smirked. “That’s technically correct, but while Naminé may not have her own Keyblade—yet—she can still use other ones and I just happen to have a spare.” She punctuated her statement by summoning Way to the Dawn before a hint of uncertainty crept into her posture. “Actually, Naminé, in a fight I think I’d be more comfortable using Destiny’s Embrace. Are you okay with using Way to the Dawn this time? We should probably stick together anyway since I can’t get around quickly without you.”

Naminé shrugged. “Since I’ll be just as new using a Keyblade in real combat regardless of the Keyblade I use, I don’t see an issue with it.” She held out her hand, and Kairi passed her Riku’s Keyblade. As soon as she grabbed it, Naminé gasped in shock.

Kairi smirked at her former Nobody. “Yeah, it’s an interesting feeling. Kind of like holding Riku’s hand, right?”

The blonde future Keyblade Wielder quirked her head. “Maybe? I mean, I’ve only really held your hand that one time, and this is a bit more intense than that. It almost feels like you did when Sora was holding your hand during the One Heart attack. Maybe I should see if it feels like this if I hold…”

At this point, Kairi was thankful that she had spent most of her life on Destiny Islands. Without all that time in the sun, it would probably be easier for people to point out that she had started blushing when Naminé revealed she had been paying attention during her fight alongside Sora. She only had to look at her extremely pale former Nobody to see what the result could be, since Naminé had finally realized what she was saying and was doing a good tomato impression.

Kairi wasn’t sure how long it would have taken the two of them to recover if Leon hadn’t gotten fed up with the teenaged drama and coughed to bring attention back to him. “I’m going to have the two of you go to the marketplace. Aerith was fighting there, but her main weapon is a staff with a Holy enchantment. The snakes just get stronger if they get hit with light, so she could only fight with magic and she had to retreat when she ran out of MP. It looks like one of your Sorcerers appeared there as well. I’ll keep you updated through your phones until Aerith gets here—then she’s taking over my role and I’m going out to join the fighting.”

Kairi and Naminé nodded, and on seeing the video feed of the marketplace Naminé opened a portal to the rooftops. Kairi jumped through and called down a series of Thundaga spells on the group of Nobodies before they could react. While the Sorcerer wasn’t fazed by the bolts of lightning, the Dusks faded into nothingness. Of course, this ended the element of surprise, and the Sorcerer threw its red cubes at the two Keyblade wielders. While they were able to block the cubes flying directly at them, they weren’t able to block the ones that exploded at their feet and sent them flying off of the roof in separate directions.

Kairi managed to land in a roll in an alley, but when she landed on something hissing, she knew she wasn’t as safe as she had hoped. She lashed out with her Keyblade on instinct, only realizing mid-swing that this probably wasn’t the best idea. One thing the description of the new enemy hadn’t included was the fact that these snakes were made entirely out of light, explaining why they grew stronger when hit with a light based attack—or in this case, hit with a Keyblade bonded to a heart of pure light. The serpent grew around six inches to reach three feet in length and seemed to respond to the attack by coiling around Kairi’s feet. Just as she was about to try and kick it off, though, the snake let her go of its own volition and slithered deeper into the alley where it curled up among some trash cans and calmly watched her.

Kairi knew that this snake represented a threat, but considering it wasn’t being overtly hostile at the moment she decided she could let it be and focus on her other enemy. She ran out of the alley and threw her Keyblade into the Sorcerer, scoring a surprise hit that let her teleport in and start raining blows on the stunned Nobody. However, she was relying too much on the information in Jiminy’s Journal about these enemies, which said these creatures didn’t counterattack until their cubes flashed red. So, after finishing her first combo and seeing the Sorcerer’s cubes hadn’t changed from their initial red color, she moved into a second. However, just because this Sorcerer didn’t have the same visual tell as the ones Sora had fought didn’t mean it reacted differently when someone hit it too many times. Kairi found herself repeatedly batted through the air as the cubes sprang to the Sorcerer’s defense.

Kairi only managed to escape the onslaught when the cubes carried her far enough away that the Sorcerer summoned them back to its side. She cast a Curaga as she fell into another alley, although this time she had a slightly softer landing as she fell onto an entire swarm of snake enemies. Just like the lone one she had encountered earlier, these didn’t seem to react to her falling on them with anything other than moving out of the way to accommodate her. However, that may have been because they were busy focusing on the other Keyblade wielder, as members of the swarm kept breaking out to lunge at Naminé who was barely able to keep them at bay.

Kairi really wished she knew how to cast a Magnet spell, but she decided to buy some time with an Aeroga. While it didn’t do as good of a job at keeping the swarm contained, it did at least send most of the snakes spinning overhead as they were caught in the cyclone. This bought Naminé some breathing room, and allowed Kairi to test out a theory as to why the snakes were ignoring her.

“Naminé, quick—let’s switch Keyblades! Mine doesn’t work on these, but I have something to test!” With this, Kairi tossed Destiny’s Embrace to her counterpart and summoned Way to the Dawn into her hand. Thanks to her hits on the Sorcerer, she was able to immediately jump into Shadowcharge, and with the surge of dark energy Kairi saw the snakes immediately turn towards her and start trying to attack her. Of course, most of them were still caught in the Aeroga, and that gave Kairi plenty of time to cut through the serpents as they tried to attack. The darkness-enhanced blade clove through the snakes like a hot knife through butter, and the remains faded away into little particles of light in much the same way a Nobody faded into nothingness.

While Kairi was making quick work of the enemies thanks to her new skill, Naminé caught her breath and finally got around to asking Kairi for more details. “Not that I’m not happy you’re able to handle these so easily, but what exactly were you testing? I know it isn’t the Shadowcharge since you already figured that out in the Land of Departure.”

Kairi waited a second to answer since her Formchange was running out, so she executed the finisher to create a massive explosion of darkness around her. With some space cleared, she quickly answered. “I think these things only are drawn towards and attack darkness. They just ignored me even if I attacked them, but as soon as I start using darkness they focus on me instead of you. I guess they just attacked people if they sense the darkness in their hearts, but that means I’m invisible usually.”

Naminé paused for a second before she grinned. “So, these things lash out at darkness? I think I have a way to beat them then.” With that, she held out her hand and formed a Dark Corridor on the ground of the alley. All of the snakes immediately changed their focus to the portal and lunged in, leaving Kairi feeling a bit wrong-footed that this problem was so easy to solve.

“Okay, that was a great idea, but where did you send them?”

Naminé shrugged. “I wasn’t really concerned about the destination, but I opened it up right above the Sorcerer. I figured this area was already overrun so it wouldn’t be a problem if a bunch of snakes appeared again. Besides, I’m guessing most of them are going to stay in the Realm of Darkness trying to attack the realm itself until some Heartless come along and destroy them.”

Kairi nervously chuckled. Sometimes it was easy to forget just how dangerous Naminé could be if she wanted to. Naminé seemed to realize this and hung her head. “Sorry about that. I guess I got a little carried away—I almost sounded like Larxene there.”

Kairi sighed. She hadn’t meant to inflict a guilt trip on her shy friend. “Don’t worry about it. Sometimes it can be good to find the quickest solution to a problem. Besides, I don’t think you have to worry about being anything like Larxene. She enjoyed toying with and hurting others—you only did that under extreme duress, and you spent practically a year trying to fix the damage. I’m pretty sure you’ve proven that you don’t want to hurt anybody that’s capable of thinking for themselves. These snakes seem to be as feral as Heartless or animals, and until proven otherwise I think it’s okay to fight them the same as anybody else we fight. Speaking of which, you can have this back. We’ve got a Sorcerer to take down.”

With a nod, the two Keyblade wielders charged back into the fray. However, now that the various other enemies weren’t a threat and Kairi had a handle on the Nobody’s timing, the fight passed fairly easily. Kairi was easily able to land a combo by throwing her Keyblade and teleporting in to continue attacking, but this time she was ready for the counterattack. She threw up her barrier while the cubes lashed out at her, and while she was driven back a bit by the impacts, she escaped unscathed. The same couldn’t be said for the Sorcerer, who found itself without any cubes to protect it while Naminé lashed out with a combo of her own. Just as the Sorcerer recalled its cubes to deal with the latest threat, Kairi teleported in again and landed an attack that finally caused the Nobody to fade into nothingness where it would hopefully be able to be recompleted.

* * *

After their defeat of the first Sorcerer, Kairi and Naminé had fallen into a bit of a rhythm. Knowing exactly what to expect made the fight against the second Sorcerer much easier, and Aerith was just now leading them to the third location. This Sorcerer had set up shop in the Fountain Court, and Kairi was glad for the fact that it was in an area that wasn’t populated. Fights were much easier when there wasn’t the worry of innocent people getting caught in the crossfire. The two Keyblade wielders entered from the Aqueduct to see the Sorcerer floating over the tallest fountain, while Dusks and snakes milled about on the lower levels. Unfortunately, with their lack of hearts Dusks had no darkness to trigger the animosity of the snakes, meaning Kairi and Naminé would have to fight against both enemies instead of letting them take out each other.

Still, that didn’t mean they couldn’t level most of the playing field. Kairi turned towards Naminé as she outlined her plan. “How big of a portal can you make? I’m trying to see if we’d be able to suck in all the snakes at once or if we’d have to keep a portal open for a while.”

Naminé gathered herself. “No idea on how big I can make it, but this seems like a good time to find out!” She held out her hand, and a large portion of the water at the base of the fountains seemed to be replaced with darkness. Naminé strained trying to expand it, but she eventually sighed. “Well, it looks like that’s as big as it’s going to…”

Kairi didn’t need to ask why her partner had trailed off, as the presence of a large purple claw reaching out of the portal made it frighteningly obvious. Naminé quickly tried to close the portal, but before she could whatever creature was attempting to come through from the Realm of Darkness tore the hole wider before leaping out. It resembled a giant lion, although the glowing yellow eyes and purple spikes along its black body made it clear this was a Heartless. However, right now the thing Kairi was most focused on was the fact that within the jaws of the new beast seemed to be one of the heads of a giant version of the snakes invading Radiant Garden—while the other two heads of the captured beast were currently biting the giant heartless.

With a twist of its head the Heartless ripped off the middle head of the beast, but while that head faded into particles of light the various smaller snakes slithered into their larger version and melded into it, letting it regrow the missing head. The Heartless countered by roaring and sending out red, green, and blue clones of itself to tear into the massive beast. Kairi and Naminé could only watch the carnage as the two titans tore into each other, retreating further up the Aqueduct to make sure they weren’t swept into the battle. Finally, Naminé managed to find her voice.

“So, should we be rooting for the heartless lion or the weird light hydra? Both probably are bad news…”

Kairi gulped and tried not to think about fighting either of these creatures. “I’m not sure if hydra is the right word. I saw the entry in Jiminy’s Journal and that’s not what the hydra in Olympus looked like. Maybe we call the big one an Orochi and the small ones Orochi Spawn?”

Naminé shrugged. “Works for me. Maybe we’ll be lucky, and they’ll destroy each other?”

Kairi wasn’t sure how long it would have taken them to do something useful if her phone hadn’t started ringing at that time. She answered it to see Ienzo swinging his Lexicon at some chains. “This is going to be a little more difficult than I thought. I could use some assistance in this battle.”

Naminé cut in. “Wait, battle? I thought we needed to defeat the four Sorcerers to unlock the door, and we only defeated two.”

Aerith’s face appeared suddenly, turning the phone into a split screen. “Leon and Yuffie took care of the third, and the fourth just got caught in the battle in the Fountain Court. Kairi, I need you to go help Ienzo in his fight. Naminé, stand by where you are in case we end up needing a Keyblade there.”

Kairi had a few questions, but Aerith shot a glare over the phone that made it clear she wouldn’t listen to any arguments. “Merlin is on his way to seal off the Fountain Court to try and keep the chaos contained. Ideally, we want both of these creatures to destroy each other, but if one survives, we’d rather it be the Heartless that our defenses work against rather than the serpent that’s immune. Having a single Keyblade nearby might be something the Heartless can ignore, but a Princess of Heart wielding a Keyblade is bound to be a much bigger distraction. We’ve gotten quite good at rebuilding, so any property damage isn’t an issue. Now get back to the castle, Kairi!”

Kairi had to resist the urge to salute at Aerith’s command. She remembered Sora having a similar reaction to Tifa, but apparently the flower saleswoman also had the same commanding force within her. Naminé quickly opened a portal that led back to City Hall, and Kairi only paused to nod at Aerith who was sitting in a row of monitors before she stepped through Ienzo’s portal. The doorway to the Chamber of Repose was open and it seemed the Crores Rex was still hanging from the ceiling in its chains, but this time it wasn’t alone. Chains had wrapped around Ienzo’s ankles and he was swinging around the outer wall. Knowing that couldn’t be a good sign, she warped to his position and managed to free him with some well-placed swings.

The researcher managed to turn his landing into a roll, and he re-summoned his Lexicon. “Thanks for the help. Unfortunately, I won’t be too much assistance in this fight. While my Lexicon can serve as a melee weapon, it isn’t the best option. Normally I fight with magic, but that doesn’t work in this case.”

“I’m guessing this guy is immune to spells just like the Sorcerers?”

“Worse. Allow me to demonstrate.” Ienzo snapped his fingers, and the walls of the chamber turned blue. The effect spread along the floor and ceiling as well, but it left a circle of the original white covering around half of the room centered on the Crores Rex. However, Kairi wasn’t sure what this meant, so she raised an eyebrow at Ienzo for him to elaborate. When that didn’t work, she went for a verbal approach—which was probably for the best, considering she had to create a barrier to protect herself from getting lashed with the Crores Rex’s chains.

“Would you care to explain what this demonstration proves?”

Ienzo batted back some chains of his own with his Lexicon. “As you may be aware, my specialty in the Organization was working with illusions. However, my illusions count as spells, and my attempt to turn the whole room blue is blocked within a certain distance of the Crores Rex. I’m calling it a Silenceja Field, even though the higher-tier Silence spells typically affect the users in an area instead of the area itself. Any spell gets nullified within the effect’s radius—even things like Firagas launched from outside the area dissipate immediately on crossing into the affected area.”

Kairi winced. “Good to know. Also, did you say Silenceja? I thought the highest spell tier was the -za tier.”

Ienzo scoffed. “We don’t have time to go into the full details of the massive academic debate on what to call certain spells. Call it whatever you want, but try to get into the blue areas if you find yourself needing a Curaga. I’ll work on taking out the chains on the walls, but you’ll have to focus on the main body.”

Kairi agreed with the proposed course of action, and immediately started with the same approach she took with the Sorcerers. Luckily, the Silenceja Field didn’t seem to impact her ability to teleport in to her Keyblade’s location when she started a combo. However, unlike the Sorcerers which could only rely on their cubes to escape a series of hits with a Keyblade, the Crores Rex had another option. As soon as Kairi landed one hit, the Nobody let out a moan and used the chains binding it to pull itself all the way to the far wall. The rush of color in the room as the white area moved along with the Nobody was a bit disorienting, but at least it proved the Silenceja Field was centered on its caster instead of a fixed area.

Now that he was out of the effect of the Crores Rex’s spell, Ienzo immediately began launching a barrage of meteors at all the chains he could target. Kairi flinched back at the memory of Master Xehanort using a larger version of the same spell against her and Sora, and Ienzo noticed her hesitance. “I know it’s difficult, but the first lesson in battle is to never freeze. I may not be the most adept in combat among the former Organization, but I do have years of fighting experience. It takes time, but it’s always better to be defeated because you tried something than be defeated because you did nothing.”

Kairi snapped herself out of her funk and threw her Keyblade to sever the chains closer to the Crores Rex. This way, it wouldn’t be able to swing out of the way of future attacks. As she teleported around the room to catch her weapon and continue hitting the chains, she grunted out, “Believe me, I’m working on it. I know it’s a problem.”

Channeling her frustration at herself into her swings, she managed to sever the last of the chains and then smash the Crores Rex down to the ground. She tried to finish it off with a plunging attack, but the Nobody let out a grotesque scream and contorted itself out of the way of the blade. It continued to slither around until it came into contact with Aqua’s armor—at which point it twisted into the discarded cuirass. Kairi charged in trying to force it out of the reason she had come here in the first place, only for her attack to get knocked aside when the other pieces of armor began twirling around seemingly of their own volition. A closer look showed barely-visible threads of energy similar to Xemnas’s black vines connecting them to the Nobody within the cuirass, which the Crores Rex used to pull the pieces of armor back together into a facsimile of when Terra’s armor had fought in the Keyblade Graveyard.

Thinking about that moment only made it slightly less shocking when the left gauntlet of the armor grasped the handle of Stormfall and brought the blade into a ready position. Kairi wasn’t sure if it was the Crores Rex’s connection to Xehanort via Xemnas that allowed it to wield a Keyblade or if this technically counted as the armor wielding the Keyblade and the Nobody was just manipulating the armor instead of directly holding it. She made a mental note to ask Aqua about the technicalities of this later, but at least she didn’t freeze in the middle of battle, allowing her to throw up her barrier just as the Crores Rex launched its left gauntlet forward.

Kairi was prepared to withstand the impact of the Keyblade against her barrier, but she wasn’t prepared for the weapon to suddenly veer away from her. The feeling of confusion immediately turned to dread, although it wasn’t until she turned her head that she realized the problem. She had never been the target of the attack, and now the Keyblade was moving far too quickly towards Ienzo for the researcher to dodge. Kairi launched herself after the Keyblade hoping she’d be able to accomplish anything, but all she could do was watch as Ienzo raised his Lexicon in an attempt to block. Stormfall easily cut through the pages of the book. Kairi finally managed to reach Ienzo and knocked away the weapon, but without the Lexicon in the way she could see a scar over Ienzo’s chest before his heart left his body.

Kairi let out a scream of frustration along with a burst of light that ripped apart the floor of the room, which was returning to its white coloration now that Ienzo wasn’t maintaining the illusion. The burst of light did manage to destroy the new Heartless that began forming from Ienzo’s heart, so at least Ienzo would be able to be recompleted if he became a Nobody again. It was a small consolation, but Kairi still couldn’t help but feel she should have been able to do something more. Luckily, she knew exactly what to take it out on. She activated her Lightcharge and started laying into the armor before it could reel its gauntlet back to a fighting position.

Her furious combo managed to lay some deep gashes across the surface of the armor, but it didn’t penetrate through to the Nobody beneath it. Having vented her frustration this way, Kairi realized she needed to try a different approach. While she could eventually get past the armor to defeat the Crores Rex, doing so would probably destroy the armor. Considering the whole reason she even came to this chamber was to retrieve the last known set of Keyblade Armor, destroying it would make the whole trip pointless. She’d have to figure out some other way to fight instead of the direct approach. However, before she could even start thinking of something, she had to throw herself to the side in order to avoid Stormfall’s blade as the Crores Rex attempted to repeat its success against Ienzo. Kairi’s hasty dodge meant she escaped with only a gash on her arm instead of losing her heart.

Normally this wound would be something a quick Curaga would be able to fix, but without Ienzo’s help Kairi wasn’t sure if she’d even be able to cast the spell, or if she was still under the effect of the Silenceja Zone. Just to be safe, she aimed for the wall the furthest from the Crores Rex and threw her Keyblade, teleporting towards it to gain some distance. Unfortunately, she wouldn’t be able to constantly teleport, so she moved towards the next step of her plan. Swinging her Keyblade around the room, she launched a series of Blizzard spells. While typically in combat she stuck with Blizzaga when she needed ice, this time the smaller size of the spell allowed for more rails of ice to be left behind on the ground. Kairi was all set to use Flowmotion to try and stay out of harm’s way, but looking at her handiwork she saw her ice crystals had managed to trap a gauntlet and a greave against the walls of the room, while the upper right portion of the cuirass was now frozen over.

While the armor didn’t appear to be harmed, the Crores Rex didn’t seem to know how to handle being hit by magic. It began spasming within the armor, and Kairi launched a quick flurry of Blizzagas to try and capitalize on the opening. However, before the ice crystals could hit their target the Crores Rex flew out of the armor with a wail, and Kairi’s ice crystals faded out of existence. Apparently, the Crores Rex had to choose whether to negate all magic in its vicinity or to use the Keyblade armor to protect itself physically, and Kairi had just forced it to switch its mode of battle. However, this seemed to inspire the Nobody to start using a new attack pattern, as it began unleashing waves of fire out from its body.

The attack was easy for Kairi to block, but she quickly realized that she wasn’t the real target of the move. The omnidirectional pulses of fire were starting to melt the ice off of the armor, and also served as a matter of defense. Most people wouldn’t be able to close the distance with the fire serving as a barrier, giving the Crores Rex time to come up with a new strategy. Kairi couldn’t help but smirk at this though—after all, she wasn’t most people. Sure, she’d still get hit by the fire if she tried to teleport in, but you didn’t spend a seemingly endless amount of time training with Axel without getting used to minor burns.

Kairi managed to lower her barrier at the right time so she only got hit by one pulse of fire before she could start landing hits on the Crores Rex. However, she quickly realized her plan had some flaws. First, while she was somewhat used to getting minor burns from Axel’s fire attacks, she wasn’t used to taking them while she had a still-bleeding cut on her arm. The extra stab of pain caused her combo to end up a lot sloppier than usual, and gave the Crores Rex time to twist out of her reach. The second thing she hadn’t considered was the fact that her landing area was made up of half-melted ice. Normally she was quick to recover after an aerial combo, but this time she lost some time as she landed on a rail of ice and her body instinctively started using Flowmotion in the direction of her momentum—which took her further away from the Nobody.

By the time she was able to stop herself, Kairi saw the Crores Rex had once again taken up residence in Aqua’s armor. Knowing she probably wouldn’t have as easy of a time hitting it with magic this time around—and with things set to deliver the finishing blow already thanks to her earlier Blizzard spam—she decided to cast a Curaga so she wouldn’t be hindered by her wounds while she tried to avoid the Nobody’s strikes. Unfortunately, she underestimated the speed of the Crores Rex as it launched the entirety of Aqua’s armor at her, forcing her to raise her barrier immediately after the glow of the healing spell washed over her.

While before her barrier had been enough to withstand most incoming hits, this time the added momentum of the armor caused the arcane defense to buckle in and start to crack. It slowed the incoming teeth of Stormfall to a crawl, but the weapon was slowly making it through her defense. If she lowered her barrier so she could start to move out of the way, the Keyblade wouldn’t be slowed anymore and she’d still take the hit before she could move. If she did nothing, she’d be in just as bad of a situation. With the obvious options ruled out, Kairi decided it was time for something desperate.

Using her free hand, Kairi reached out and grabbed the teeth of Stormfall. Ignoring the pain in her hand, she started pulling the blade to the side while focusing on trying to connect with the blade just like she did with Destiny’s Embrace or Way to the Dawn. She may not remember her meeting with Aqua, but from what the Keyblade Master had told her this was the very same Keyblade that had found her worthy of wielding her own in the future. She had to hope that it would recognize her from those years ago and decide to serve her instead of an empty set of armor being puppeteered by a lesser Nobody.

Kairi’s gamble paid off when Stormfall disappeared out of the armor’s gauntlet and reappeared in her hand. Unfortunately, this meant Destiny’s Embrace disappeared since she could only use a single Keyblade at a time, and with it her barrier disappeared since Kairi needed to channel her focus through her Keyblade to raise her defense. She might not be in danger of losing her heart, but she was still in danger of getting hit by the armor as it resumed rushing at her. It was already inside the confines of her usual barrier, and rather than trying to cast a smaller version she decided to just go with a standard block. She knew most of her friends could perfectly block attacks without relying on a barrier, but Kairi hadn’t practiced blocking since she figured out the barrier. While she managed to undo most of the harm the charging armor would have otherwise inflicted, she was still knocked backwards and fell into a heap with the armor on top of her.

While it was far from the most stylish move, Kairi realized this put her in the perfect position. She only had to tilt her hand slightly to put Stormfall’s teeth inside the cuirass of Aqua’s armor—and thus within firing distance of the Crores Rex with no obstruction. Of course she’d only get one shot at the Nobody before it caught on to her plan, but Kairi made sure to make that shot count.

“Blizzaza!” Kairi had expected her Grand Magic to disable the armor and do some serious damage to the Crores Rex, but she underestimated exactly how deep Aqua’s affinity for magic ran. Casting the spell using a Keyblade that reflected Aqua’s own heart caused the resulting blast of ice to be twice as large as any of Kairi’s previous uses of Blizzaza. Channeled through the chest piece of Aqua’s armor, the spell ended up creating a giant facsimile of an ice flower, with a narrow stem that burst open into a series of petals. The sheer force of the blast caused the different pieces of armor to scatter throughout the air before they were instantly frozen in place, forming some of the only imperfections in the otherwise clear sculpture. However, Kairi’s eyes were drawn to the body of the Crores Rex, which had flown the farthest before being frozen in place. That state didn’t last for long, though, as the damage finally caught up and the Nobody faded back into nothingness.

With the battle finally over, Kairi collapsed to the ground panting. That last spell may have been much more effective than she was expecting, but it also took a lot more out of her. She wasn’t sure how Aqua could regularly throw around high-level spells if her Keyblade took this much of a toll to use. She guessed it just went to show the gap in power between a fairly inexperienced wielder like herself and a true Keyblade Master. Curious to know more about what this Keyblade could do, and now no longer fighting for her life, Kairi decided to extend her heart further to the weapon and see what she could learn.

Almost immediately, Kairi gasped in surprise. While she had only known Aqua for a short amount of time, she thought she had a good understanding of the Keyblade Master. Only now that she was getting a glimpse into what Aqua’s heart was like before her decade in the Realm of Darkness did she see how off she was. She had thought Aqua was an immensely strong person for coming out of that exile mostly unscathed, but now she could see exactly how full of light her heart was before that event. It was like comparing the ocean on a calm day to the ocean in the middle of a storm at night—which only made Kairi look up even more to the Keyblade Master. Instead of being so strong that her light withstood the darkness around her, she was so strong that she could keep her light going even after the immense scarring of her heart with darkness. It was a lot more impressive to carry on despite all the hurt instead of just never getting hurt in the first place.

Kairi wasn’t sure how long she would have sat beneath the ice sculpture focusing on Stormfall, but her phone ringing snapped her out of her reverie. She answered it only to see the Keyblade Master herself on the other end of the line. “Hey Kairi, is everything going okay on your end? I ask because Ienzo suddenly fell unconscious onto Ven. I thought he was with you, and I’m a bit curious as to how he managed to hop worlds without us sensing any dark corridors.”

Kairi’s eyes widened. She knew from Isa and Even’s experiences that the second time reforming after being a Nobody was much faster than the first—on the order of a couple of days instead of months—but she hadn’t expected Zexion to form that quickly after Ienzo lost his heart. Realizing Aqua didn’t know anything about what had happened, she quickly explained. “Things got a bit complicated here, and Ienzo lost his heart. That’s probably Zexion, since his Nobody would have formed somewhere in the Realm Between and the Land of Departure is one of the possible worlds. The threat’s been taken care of, and I’ve got a few things I want you to see.”

Kairi spun her camera around to show the armor trapped in the ice sculpture. “Unfortunately it took a bit of damage, and we’ll probably need to wait a while for the ice to melt since I wouldn’t want to risk more damage by throwing fire spells around, but we can consider the recovery of your armor a success. But that’s not the biggest news…” With that, Kairi turned the camera back to herself—and more importantly, the Keyblade in her hand.

Aqua couldn’t help but gasp. “You found Stormfall? I thought it was lost forever…” Kairi saw Aqua hold her arm out, and felt a sudden pull on her arm as Stormfall lurched in her hands. However, the blade didn’t dematerialize, and Kairi tried reaching out to it to figure out why. All she got was a feeling of confusion, and Kairi realized the weapon didn’t know if it was actually Aqua calling it or not. Deciding to treat the Keyblade like she would a spooked dog or cat, Kairi started murmuring in a reassuring tone.

“It’s okay. I know she feels different, but I promise you that’s still Aqua. You can go to her.” Kairi was sure this would be embarrassing if somebody walked in on her talking to a key, but she didn’t mind because it seemed to be the encouragement Stormfall needed to dematerialize. Quickly turning her eyes to her phone, she saw Stormfall appear in Aqua’s hand and chose to ignore the tears streaming down the Keyblade Master’s face.

“Stormfall, you’re back! I can’t believe…” Aqua trailed off as her newly-reacquired Keyblade shrank a little bit, with openings appearing in the teeth and the guard of the weapon. Aqua let out a sad chuckle. “So, back to Rainfell again? I guess that’s only fair. We’ve been separated for so long that it’s like we’re starting over.”

Kairi sighed in happiness before another voice cut in. “If you’d like, Merlin can be by shortly to speed up the melting of the ice.” Kairi jumped as Aerith once again interrupted a phone call she wasn’t part of.

“Aerith, how many times are you going to cut into my phone calls?”

Aerith smirked. “As many times as you have world-spanning phone calls in a location where you know any off-world communication is being monitored. Besides, the snakes have all disappeared and Naminé dealt the finishing blow to the giant Heartless, so the city is safe again. We’d be happy to help get Aqua her armor back.”


	5. Principaute de Rose

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kairi continues her mission and head's to what used to be Beast's Castle, just in time for a Royal Wedding. But the drama of family members, guests, and wedding crashers soon takes a back seat to Maleficent's latest scheme...

Kairi found a clearing in the forest not far from the castle and started descending on her Keyblade Glider. Something about this world didn’t sit right with everything she was seeing, so she was going to need to be a little more cautious. She was supposed to be delivering a Gummiphone to either Belle or the Beast as the people who already knew about other worlds and could best communicate any issues with Heartless or clues about Sora, but this sunlight forest and cheery castle were a far cry from how her friends had described Beast’s Castle and the surrounding Black Forest. Just in case this wasn’t the world she thought it was, it was probably best to take things slow. After all, between her armor—which resembled Aqua’s, except was predominantly pink with purple and white accents—and her Keyblade Glider which ended up looking like a witch’s broom, she wasn’t exactly subtle. She’d either be pegged as an anomaly at best or a threat at worst if this was a new world, and it would be best to avoid that whole can of worms.

She returned her armor to its inactive state of a single pauldron on her left arm before taking out her own phone and calling Riku. He was probably the best choice just to verify her location, considering Roxas and Xion had been mainly focused on the interior of the castle for Organization XIII while Riku had at least spent some time investigating the surrounding forest and village. Plus, if this was a prank of some sort, Riku would be the most likely to admit to it before things got out of hand. While he wasn’t the type to avoid teasing, he did get a bit more responsible after all the adventures.

After a few rings, the Keyblade Master picked up. Before he could even say hello, Kairi started talking. “Okay, Riku, be honest with me. Did you really direct me towards a strange world just because I didn’t let you know that we got the Keyblade Armor working? Because Terra asked me to keep it a secret as a joke, and I’m fine with this being your revenge for that but I’d rather not take things far enough that we end up causing problems in a new world.”

Riku raised an eyebrow. “Listen, I know I’ve got some jealously problems, but I’m long past the days when I would go that far. I understand why you could only make three sets of armor, and it makes the most sense for those to go to you, Terra, and Ven since you’re the ones who are directly traveling through the Lanes Between on your own. Of course, I still want my own armor eventually so I’m working on some designs and keeping my eyes open if I come across any Writhing Crystals or Orichalcum so I can provide the needed synthesis materials, but I wouldn’t do anything as far as sending you on a wild goose chase. Besides, you’ll see my form of revenge the next time you stop by your room.”

Kairi sighed. “It better not be anything my parents would deem inappropriate…”

Riku just chuckled. “Please, they’re the ones who helped me pull it off. But that’s all the information you’ll be getting from me. Why do you think you’re on a different world than Beast’s Castle?”

Kairi slowly spun her phone around to let Riku see the forest. “Well, I was kind of expecting something a lot more dreary and gothic from a cursed castle. But everything here looks cheery, and I saw regular people working in the castle instead of furniture.”

Riku shrugged. “Well, it did sound like the curse had a time limit, and I think it was almost up the last time Sora visited this world. It probably just broke between then and now. According to my phone, you are calling me from the same world as Beast’s Castle, so you’re either in the right place or at a different castle on the same world. It’s probably best to ask some of the locals—I’m sure there would have been news about a prince turned into a Beast, whether he changed back or just lives in a different place.”

Kairi sighed. “Alright. I’ll try not to cause any problems while finding out what I can about this. If I end up thrown in a dungeon, though, I’m calling you to pay my bail. Sure, I could easily escape on my own, but I’m not going to end up a wanted criminal on my first solo mission.”

Riku just laughed and wished Kairi luck before hanging up. With that out of the way, Kairi started heading towards the castle, only taking a slight detour so she could approach on the path to the main gate instead of appearing out of the woods. It was probably a lot less suspicious this way, and easier to pass herself off as a traveler from a distant area instead of someone who just magically appeared on the world.

When she got to the gate, she saw a portly man on the other side hunched over some books. She tried getting his attention, but he seemed too engrossed in his work to notice her. He seemed to be muttering to himself, but he wasn’t doing the best job at keeping his voice down. Knowing what it was like to be interrupted in the midst of talking to yourself, Kairi decided to wait for a quiet moment before interrupting.

“Really, it’s bad enough planning a royal wedding, but now that Her Majesty is willing to acknowledge the master? Suddenly we have to redo everything. At least the risk hiring the new gardener paid off. He may have a host of problems, but his quality of work is outstanding…”

Realizing this might be her best opening, Kairi loudly cut in. “Excuse me, but would you happen to know the way to Beast’s Castle?”

The man jumped as he turned his attention towards Kairi, letting her see the pocket watch he was wearing as a necklace. “Oh, forgive me, you startled me. You must have traveled far to come here, but I’m afraid I must disappoint you. While this was formerly known as Beast’s Castle, our master Prince Adam has been freed from his curse and decided to rename this the Chateau de Rose. And if you are hoping to enjoy some of our famous hospitality, I’m afraid I must ask you to wait a few days. With the royal wedding tomorrow, our staff is quite busy. Even I am only covering now, as our maître d is currently indisposed.” He then added in a mumble that Kairi wasn’t sure she was supposed to hear, “I swear, if I find more feathers and wax around… it was much better when there was a mostly innocent excuse for that…”

Kairi decided to pretend she never heard that. “Okay, I understand that things are busy right now, but can you at least take a message to Belle and the Be—I mean, Adam? Tell them Kairi needs to speak with them, and that Sora needs their help.”

The man perked up. “Wait, you know Sora? Tell me, are you also able to use a Keyblade? We’ve had rumors of dark creatures roaming around, and we really can’t afford for the Heartless to attack in the middle of the wedding. Oh, I’m sorry, I never introduced myself. My name is Cogsworth, and I am the majordomo of this castle.”

Kairi smiled. “It’s nice to meet you, Cogsworth. As you probably already guessed, my name is Kairi. As for whether I can use a Keyblade, I believe this answers that question?” She held out her hand and summoned Destiny’s Embrace for a few seconds before dismissing it again. Sometimes it felt good to be able to show off, especially since she was somewhere where the sight of someone magically summoning a Keyblade wasn’t unheard of. However, she did regret it when a man with black hair and scars across his face turned the corner and stumbled over his feet at the sight of the weapon, dropping the broom, dustpan, and sack he was carrying with a large clang. The servant quickly scrambled to pick them up before hurrying on his way, causing Cogsworth to sigh.

“You’ll have to forgive Diaval. He’s new to the castle, and seemingly not as comfortable around anything magical as those of us who have been around since before the curse. From what I can gather, the master he previously worked for could be very strict with punishments, so he always seems nervous if he makes the smallest slip up. Still, he’s very good at his job, and always seems to know when and where he is needed.”

Kairi just nodded sheepishly and made a mental note to apologize to the man when she next saw him. Cogsworth continued their previous conversation. “I know this might be asking a lot of you, but would you mind joining the security detail until the wedding is over tomorrow? I’d feel a lot better knowing we have someone with your set of skills watching out for the crowd, and I can work out proper compensation for you.”

Kairi shook her head. “You don’t need to worry about paying me. Just set up an appointment for me to talk with Belle and Adam after the wedding and I’d be happy to help out. Although, if the king and queen are coming, will my dress be appropriate? I’d hate to make a bad impression.”

Cogsworth glanced at Kairi’s outfit and frowned. “Well, that might be a problem. Not that any of this is your fault, but I’m not sure how the queen would feel about the Master relying on a young woman to be his bodyguard. We may just need to get you a musketeer uniform so you blend in a bit more and people won’t take as much notice…”

Kairi seriously doubted anybody would confuse her for a grown man even with a uniform, but before she could say anything a snooty voice interjected. “Trying to sneak a spy into the ranks of the King’s Musketeers, are we? Even if trying such a thing with a little girl is laughable, I would hate to see what Her Majesty would think on hearing her husband’s natural son is plotting such a move. Unless this is something you are doing for yourself? She is rather young, but perhaps you are merely looking for an excuse to keep her around? Her skills certainly don’t seem to lie on the military side.”

Cogsworth started spluttering incoherently, and Kairi tightened her grip on Destiny’s Embrace and took a deep breath to try and calm herself down. As satisfying as it would be to see if a Keyblade could unlock some basic decency if she shoved it into the uniformed speaker, she really didn’t want to cause any trouble for Belle and Adam on the night before their wedding. The man’s red outfit with a blue vest was fancy enough that he probably had some position of importance that meant people would notice if he mysteriously disappeared or picked up another scar on his face.

Before Kairi could make any response, though, a gentle voice cut across the courtyard. “Is anything the matter, Captain Rochefort?” It was almost comical how quickly the now-named Captain snapped to attention, almost losing his hat from the speed with which he turned around. The new speaker had a mane of auburn hair and was wearing a blue suit, and Kairi had a sneaking suspicion on who he was before Rochefort’s response confirmed it.

“Oh, nothing vital,  _ your Highness. _ I just overheard your majordomo trying to sneak this…courtesan…into the Royal Guard.” Prince Adam quickly glanced towards Kairi and his eyes lingered on her Keyblade for a second before he responded to the Captain. However, instead of taking offense at the clear derision in the guardsman’s tone, Adam simply burst out laughing.

“Courtesan? Wow, that’s a good one. Cogsworth, didn’t I tell you that I wanted to meet with all of the important guests as soon as they arrived? Forgive my lateness in meeting you as well as this soldier’s complete lack of tact, Princess Kairi.” Adam sent a wink towards Kairi and she quickly decided to play along.

“I do ask that you not punish Sir Cogsworth too harshly—I asked him not to disturb you with my late arrival. As for this soldier here…I suppose I can deign to overlook his attitude, although I assure you I won’t forget.”

Prince Adam nodded. “Very well. Oh, but where are my manners? Captain Rochefort, may I introduce you to Princess Kairi of the Destiny Islands?” He smiled as Rochefort’s face turned from smugness to confusion.

“The Destiny Islands? I’ve never heard of such a kingdom.”

Adam’s grin grew larger. “They like to keep things that way. Just between us, I don’t believe there’s a military around that can match what the islanders can do. A few years ago I fought alongside one of their knights in training. Even with my bestial strength, I was unable to touch some of the enemies this child could defeat. And now their princess is here without any trace of a guard. Ask yourself: would they really send a princess alone if they weren’t absolutely sure she could handle any fight she got into?”

That question seemed to finally get through to Rochefort, who muttered what could have been viewed as an apology under his breath before he turned on his heel and marched away. Once he was out of sight, Adam turned back to Cogsworth. “Sorry about that. I figured the easiest way to get rid of Rochefort would be to make it seem like you hadn’t done your job. You’re doing a great job keeping everything together.”

“Why thank you, sir. I completely understand the need to get rid of…well, I suppose I shouldn’t say what I was about to say since we are in the presence of a princess, after all. But if we can’t install Kairi in the royal guard, how else can we explain away her providing additional security? With the rumors of dark creatures circling about, it will pay to have a Keyblade on hand…”

Prince Adam’s eyes lit up. “Why don’t you go find Chip? I believe he just finished his little project, and it might work perfectly to disguise Kairi as a regular guest. I can show her to her room while we wait—we’ll be down in the basement of the East wing.”

As Cogsworth scurried off, Adam turned back to Kairi. “Sorry to you too for not giving you a chance to speak for yourself there, but Rochefort’s always a bit difficult to deal with and I knew the quickest way to get him to go away.”

Kairi chuckled. “Oh, no worries. I just can’t believe you managed to phrase everything that way with it all being technically true. After all, I am technically a princess, I did come here from Destiny Islands, there’s not a military around that can claim three Keyblade wielders, and we are the ones who can permanently defeat heartless. But how did you know who I was in the first place?”

Adam chuckled. “Sora is surprisingly talkative, even when his only companion is a Beast that really isn’t one for conversation. He told me all about you and Riku back in Hollow Bastion, so it wasn’t that hard to guess who you were when I saw you with a Keyblade.” He then paused for a second. “Actually, is there a particular reason you are here? I know Keyblade wielders try not to mess with the affairs of other worlds unless there’s something already upsetting the balance, so if these rumors are the sign of another major threat it would be good to know about it.”

Kairi sighed. “Well, we aren’t aware of anything major targeting multiple worlds, but there is a reason I’m here…” Kairi then went on into an abbreviated version of the Keyblade War and Sora’s subsequent disappearance. Adam quickly agreed to report any hints of Sora while Kairi showed him how to use the Gummiphone to get in contact with them more quickly than waiting for someone to visit from another world. The conversation took them all the way to the room Adam offered for Kairi to stay in.

“It might not be as fancy as some of the rooms upstairs, but it does have the advantage of privacy. There’s only one other person staying down here—she’s actually the reason I tried to have a separate set of rooms set up.”

Kairi raised an eyebrow. “Should I be worried about her?”

Adam shook his head. “No, nothing like that. Really, keeping her separate is more of a protection for her from the other world residents than anything else. See, I look at her and I see all the reasons I have to be thankful for my status. Sure, people might have always thought less of me for being the King’s bastard, but they still had to treat me with some respect, and I have the right mix of lower status and higher status that I can marry a woman that many view as a commoner without there being any problems. Those who view me as just a bastard think it’s a fitting match, but even those who look beyond that realize that it’s not worth antagonizing a prince just because he married below his station.”

“That’s not the case for Lady Elrena. She’s from a noble family, and it caused quite a scandal when she ran off with a gardener. I’ve heard that an enchantress was involved somehow, and considering my experiences I want to give her a chance to find her own happiness without having to constantly deal with the scorn of the other nobles. Maybe if they see what she’s really like they won’t keep holding her past actions over her head.”

* * *

After Adam left, Kairi spent a little bit of time familiarizing herself with the rest of the castle. She started following after Chip, who dropped off the project he had worked on. Apparently, he had accidentally damaged one of Belle’s dresses and had spent some time working on repairing it, but with various attempts he had resulted in a dress that wouldn’t fit Belle anymore. Luckily, it had shrunk enough that Kairi could wear it comfortably tomorrow. When Mrs. Potts came to take the child to bed, Kairi decided to continue exploring just to see if she could find any of these rumored dark creatures. While she knew she would need to get some sleep for tomorrow, the time difference between this world and Destiny Islands meant it felt like it was only six PM for her, and she hadn’t yet mastered the Sleep spell to the point where she could use it on herself like Riku could to handle the time differences more easily.

Her wanderings eventually brought her into the courtyard, where the only things she saw that gave any credence to the rumors of darkness being around were the cloudy skies and the large number of crows and ravens darting between the gargoyles on the castle’s exterior. It certainly restored some of the ominous ambiance she had been expecting from what she had heard of Beast’s Castle, but nothing was triggering her ability to sense darkness so it must have just been a coincidence.

Almost as if the sky could hear her thoughts, bolts of lightning rained down and stuck multiple points on the walls and roof of the castle, causing the birds to scatter away with a series of horrified cawing. Kairi immediately summoned her Keyblade and jumped backwards, knowing such a show wasn’t likely to be natural. As if to drive the point home, an object flew through the space one step in front of where her head had been before she jumped back and buried itself into the wall.

Kairi quickly traced back the trajectory of the projectile to one of the castle’s outer walls, but before she could take more than a couple steps towards the likely source a bolt of lightning struck the wall in the same general area. Kairi still ran up the wall, but by the time she reached the top there was no sign of anything else up there with her. After a few minutes of keeping her guard up only for nothing to happen, she headed back to the ground to try and see if she could get any clue as to what had happened.

Closer inspection revealed the projectile that almost hit her to be a kitchen knife, but Kairi’s attention immediately focused on the rolled up piece of paper tied to the handle. The only writing on the outside was “To Sora’s Damsel” with a drawing of a broken heart, which led Kairi to believe the projectile had always been meant as more of a taunt than an actual attack. She unrolled the paper only to read the strangest warning she ever received.

_ So, seems like the Princess is trying to get her hands dirty. Well, you being here seems to have caused a bit of a mess. I overheard one of the flighty servants talking with that prissy Captain about how their plans would have to change with a Keyblade around. Apparently Mr. High-and-Mighty took a bribe to sneak some people into the wedding tomorrow, but now they’re going to go with a different plan. Seems like things could turn ugly, and I don’t want to deal with that headache. Why don’t you be a good little hero and take care of things? By the way, I’d watch out for the crows if I were you. Somebody seems to be controlling them and using them as spies. _

* * *

While Kairi wanted to enjoy the experience of Adam and Belle’s wedding, she found her excitement marred by paranoia. After reading the note last night, she had immediately went to Adam with the information. With the prince’s support, it wasn’t hard to confront Rochefort about the potential security breach, and the captain admitted to taking a bribe to allow two people from Belle’s village named Gaston and LeFou access to the castle during the wedding. Adam recognized Gaston’s name, but according to him the man was more of an annoyance than an actual threat—he was one of Belle’s former suitors but didn’t have anything in the way of supernatural powers.

None of that had added up for Kairi, who spent most of the ceremony waiting for something terrible to happen. If this was simply a matter of a jealous former suitor trying to crash the wedding, why did the plan have to change due to the presence of the Keyblade? While her mysterious informant hadn’t mentioned much in terms of actual details, they had known enough about her and Sora that Kairi trusted their judgement if they thought something was serious enough to give a warning. To make matters worse, Diaval had seemingly disappeared, leaving no further avenues to find out what was going on.

Still, despite the worries, the ceremony continued on. Thus far, there hadn’t been any issues, and Kairi hoped for the sake of the couple that everything continued without a hitch. The priest leading the ceremony had turned towards the rest of the congregation, and Kairi tuned back in just in time to hear him say, “Should anyone present know of any reason this couple should not be joined in holy matrimony, speak now or forever hold your—”

Before he could finish his sentence, the door to the chapel burst open while a deep voice called out, “I object!” Everyone turned to look at the source of the interruption, which turned out to be two men entering. The first was an incredibly burly man wearing a red shirt along with a black shawl and a wide-brimmed hat. The second was one Kairi recognized from their brief meeting—but Diaval had swapped out his servant’s gear for a set of black leather clothes along with a frayed cape that seemed to be made from crow feathers.

While Kairi was keeping her eye on the newcomers in case they were about to unleash the threat she was warned about, Belle seemed to be more focused on them interrupting her wedding. “Gaston, I’ve told you a hundred times. Just because you are interested in me doesn’t mean I’m interested in you. I love Adam, and I’m going to marry him. You will just have to learn to live with your jealousy.”

The burly man—apparently Gaston—laughed. “Me? Jealous? I think you’ve got me mistaken for someone else. I’m just here to prevent you from committing a grave sin. After all, the clergyman did ask if there was any reason the wedding shouldn’t continue. Last I checked, it was a grievous affront for a human to marry a Beast.”

Adam cleared his throat. “Yes, because my obvious fur, horns, and claws clearly denote that the curse did not break.”

Gaston snorted. “You say that like it proves anything. I’ve seen just how easy it is for a beast to assume a human form. You may have fooled everyone else, but I know what you truly are. And now I have the opportunity to prove it!”

Gaston clenched his fist and started glowing with a dark aura, with swirls of green and sky blue energy visible within it. Kairi sprang to her feet in an attempt to stop him, only to trip on her dress. As she stumbled she activated her Keyblade Armor, making sure she wouldn’t run into problems like that in the actual fight. However, the second it took for her to regain her balance was enough time for Gaston to launch an orb of darkness at Adam.

Just before the attack could hit, Belle shoved the prince out of the way and took the hit herself. Kairi winced—she knew how painful being exposed to concentrated darkness could be, but even without having the title of Princess of Heart anymore Belle’s pure heart should have protected her from harm.

Just as she thought that, Kairi felt a massive wave of nausea and had to dismiss her helmet as she retched. There must have been more to that attack than just pure darkness, as even when facing down Xehanort she hadn’t reacted so strongly. It was a more intense version of what she had felt when the Islands fell, but she didn’t have time to ponder the connection as she forced herself to straighten up and return her attention to the brewing fight.

She had somewhat expected Belle to have a similar reaction to whatever attack Gaston had used, but she hadn’t expected to see the soon-to-be married woman to be howling in agony as she clutched a swollen left arm covered in fur. As Belle continued to roll on the ground, the affliction spread until Kairi found herself looking at an exact copy of Adam’s bestial form wearing the tattered remains of a wedding dress.

The entire cathedral seemed frozen in time for a few seconds until a gunshot rang through the air, and a projectile coated in darkness slammed into Adam’s shoulder. That sent the crowd screaming in panic, but Gaston’s voice carried above the confused screams of the guests and the more focused screams of the couple at the altar.

“There’s more where that came from, foul beast! You may think to save yourself by transferring your curse to others, but I will stop your scourge at the source!” Instead of firing more shots from his pistol, Gaston charged forward with an axe in hand. Kairi was just about to intercept him when she detected a massive darkness closing in above her and raised her barrier.

Kairi thanked her quick reaction times when a dark purple fist crashed through the ceiling onto her barrier instead of her head. The blow still sent her flying back, but at least it was only painful instead of seriously damaging. The creature’s other arm then ripped open the ceiling, allowing Kairi to see a purple variation of a Darkside. Purple Shadows began springing up from the ground, and Kairi was about to fight them when a slightly hoarse voice next to her drew her attention.

“A Dark Follower? They shouldn’t appear in this situation…unless one was in the castle before. It seems the spell was not quite as focused as I thought.”

Kairi turned her Keyblade toward Diaval, who happened to be right next to her after the Dark Follower’s attack sent her back. “So you’re the one who summoned the Heartless? What did Belle and Adam do to you that you’d do this to them?”

Diaval snorted. “What makes you think I have any personal stake in this? I am merely doing as my mistress commanded.”

Kairi’s eyes widened. “Mistress? Are you working for Maleficent?”

Diaval smirked. “Why of course. Did you really think she would stop her plans just because you stopped Xehanort? We’ve got plenty of—”

Kairi swung at Diaval to try and inflict some damage while he was busy talking, but Maleficent’s servant pulled a strange helical sword out of his cloak and blocked Destiny’s Embrace with a clang. The man didn’t seem to be too disturbed by the sudden attack as he continued in the same uninterested tone.

“Well, I admit you certainly are smarter in combat than some of the other Keyblade Wielders that are too honorable for their own good. However, do you really think you should be taking the time to fight me? You seem to be putting an awful lot of faith into the guards of this world.”

Kairi couldn’t help but glance towards the members of the Royal Guard, where half of them were frozen in fear and the other half seemed to be firing their muskets at the Shadows in desperation. The moment of distraction Kairi had while scanning the scene cost her, as Diaval gave a twist of his sword that sent Destiny’s Embrace skidding off to the side and ended the blade lock. Kairi fully expected to take a hit while she was off-balance, but Diaval instead started running towards the exit.

Kairi wanted to give chase, but she knew the Heartless were a more immediate threat. She called down a couple of Thundaga spells to thin out the swarm of Shadows before throwing her Keyblade into the face of the Dark Follower. Despite the different coloration, it acted much like a Darkside, and Jiminy’s Journal had plenty of examples of how to take that Heartless down.

However, there were a few things the journal entries couldn’t account for. Sora had almost always faced down Darkside alone, so the creature had always focused its attacks on him or other combatants. Here, there were plenty of targets for the Heartless to choose from. While Kairi was easily able to recognize the patterns in the monster’s attacks, she wasn’t expecting for it to start shooting orbs of darkness at bystanders instead of at her.

Instead of being able to easily deflect the attacks back at the Heartless with her Barrier, Kairi was forced to throw her Keyblade at each individual orb to deflect it into walls or the ground. Even with her ability to teleport to her weapon, she barely was able to make it to the last orb in time. Taking a second to catch her breath after the maneuver, Kairi noticed the last person she had saved was Captain Rochefort and couldn’t help but smirk.

“Still doubting if my skills are on the military side?” With that, she returned to attacking the giant Heartless, landing a few more combos to its face before blocking its retaliatory swings. She lost herself in the flow of the fight, alternating between attacking the Dark Follower and the Shadows it summoned until with a last attack she finally defeated the giant Heartless. As the monster faded back into darkness, Kairi prepared herself to track down Diaval when a scream interrupted her. She turned to the source to see the King and Queen cowering in fear before a bestial Heartless wrapped in teal thorns with a glowing orange mane. Kairi recognized the Dark Thorn just before it turned invisible, leaving her unsure of where it would attack from or even who it would attack.

Knowing she’d have to do something before the powerful Heartless could cause any damage, Kairi prepared to call down another Thundaga in the hope of scoring a lucky hit so she could identify her target’s new location. However, it seemed someone beat her to the punch, as massive bolts of lightning scoured the area before Kairi could even finish raising her Keyblade. In the wake of the Thundaza, the Dark Thorn lay twitching on the ground as leftover electricity crackled over its body, and Kairi looked around for her helper when a familiar voice stopped her cold.

“Come on, is that all you’ve got? If you’re going to interrupt my vacation, you should at least give me a good time.” Kairi didn’t need to see the shower of lightning-infused kunai or the blonde woman in a cyan dress that threw them to place the voice she had been hearing in the nightmares Naminé had accidentally shared with her.

Kairi immediately tossed her Keyblade at the new arrival, only for it to clang harmlessly against a barrier of lightning. Undeterred, she tried to press her assault. “Larxene, what are you doing here? Can’t you see we have enough problems going on?”

Larxene managed to put her full body into an eye roll. “Well,  _ excuse me, Princess! _ First off, my name is Elrena now, thanks to your loser boyfriend. As for what I’m doing here, did it ever cross your mind that maybe I live here?”

Suddenly, everything clicked into place for Kairi. After all, Adam had mentioned an Elrena living on this world, and now that she scrambled the letters in her head it suddenly seemed obvious. Considering the strange lightning last night and the knife thrown at her head—

“Wait a minute, you’re the one who threw that knife at me! Why would you warn me about what was going on but not actually give full details? And why make your method of delivery so dangerous?”

Elrena gave out a grating laugh. “What, did you think I cared enough to actually directly involve myself? Please, all I had to tell your little boyfriend was that the bad guys were holding his friend in a castle and that was all he needed to clean out Castle Oblivion. Here I thought you could handle a little mystery. Besides, would you really have done anything other than attack me if I didn’t make the barest minimum of effort to hide my identity? Like I said, I’m trying to enjoy some time off. Throwing down with another Keykid isn’t something I want to do during my me time.”

Kairi wasn’t sure how to process this. “Okay, so if you didn’t want to help before, why are you helping now?”

Elrena’s face hardened. “Because you couldn’t do your job, and if anything happened to  _ their majesties _ over there, people would be looking for anyone to blame. And after going after the host of this establishment and the interloper, they’d turn to the one everyone believes is a witch. I’ve dealt with angry mobs before and they are neither entertaining nor relaxing. Now, I believe it’s about time you make like a good wannabe hero and chase down that guy who flew the coop while I take care of Mr. Sparky here.”

Kairi was a bit confused by what she meant, until she saw the Dark Thorn had spawned a few Possessor Heartless which had taken over Elrena’s thrown knives and used them to add an electrical armor to the lion-like Heartless. That would probably make it a bit more challenging to take down, but Kairi supposed if Elrena was confident she could handle it and the woman didn’t appear to be an immediate threat she could leave the matter in the former Savage Nymph’s hands. Besides, there was a gleam in Elrena’s eyes that promised something Kairi wasn’t sure she’d want to stick around and see…

* * *

Kairi wasn’t sure how many times she had used her Light Slide in order to dash through the castle to the bridge, but it was probably a record in terms of distance covered, even if she had to pause a few times to fight off the nausea she was still experiencing. She knew she didn’t have much chance of catching Diaval if he had created a Dark Corridor, but the fact that he had physically run out of the chapel gave her hope that she could still catch him. That proved true once she reached the bridge leading out of the Castle’s grounds, but the sight that greeted her was enough to make her wonder if she was hallucinating.

After meeting Elrena, the sight of a cloaked figure wielding an all-too-familiar pink scythe crossing blades with Diaval wouldn’t have been a surprise. However, unless Marluxia’s Somebody decided to swap out the black organization cloak for a white version and somehow lost a few feet in height, Diaval’s current opponent was a new person. She wasn’t sure who they were, but Kairi figured if they were fighting one of Maleficent’s underlings they were an ally. She rushed forward to help, only to stop in her tracks when Diaval suddenly charged his sword with darkness, extending the blade to twice its usual length and cutting the scythe in half…along with its wielder.

Before Kairi could take note of the body falling to the ground like a puppet with its strings cut, giant crimson rose petals appeared in the air and began firing lasers at Diaval. The man managed to weave his way through most of the hits, but with his attention above him he didn’t notice the carpet of thorns growing along the bridge until they sprang up and ensnared him. This time, the voice of Diaval’s opponent matched with who Kairi had been expecting in the first place.

“Well, I must say I’m impressed. As the lord of this castle’s gardens, I was already going to punish you for bringing those Heartless into my domain and wrecking my work. But now that you’ve gone and damaged Zinnia, I suggest you start explaining yourself now and I just might decide not to prolong your suffering. Otherwise, I try to break my record of growing vines through 20% of a captive’s arteries before they die.”

Kairi remembered exactly why Naminé had nightmares about Marluxia with how calmly his Somebody was able to say that threat, but it seemed to get through to Diaval. While the man didn’t seem particularly shaken, he did hastily respond. Kairi began sneaking closer to hear what he was saying, as he was speaking much more quietly than Marluxia,

“Well, I will apologize for the Heartless. That was an unintended side effect of the spell I was testing out for my mistress. In truth, this castle was a target only by happenstance. This world just so happened to have all the ingredients needed for a proper test. We wanted a place ravaged by a powerful curse, home to a strong heart of light, and with a convenient patsy to channel the spell in case of any danger. Belle may no longer have a heart of pure light, but she served the purpose well enough. Gaston was the perfect pawn with how easily he was swayed to darkness. However, the Heartless must have gotten involved when we rushed the execution. I wasn’t about to let all of my prep work go to waste just because a Keyblade Wielder showed up. So really, this is partially your fault as well, Kairi.”

Marluxia’s Somebody turned to Kairi in shock, and Kairi readied Destiny’s Embrace in case the Graceful Assassin decided to turn his aggression on her. However, after a few seconds the pink-haired man chuckled. “Well, I must admit this is awkward. I don’t think we’ve ever personally met, even though we once stood on opposite sides of the battlefield. Still, I’m sure you know all about me. I’m not sure if Naminé is still within you or not, but if she is, I would like to sincerely apologize for my treatment of her in Castle Oblivion.”

Kairi slightly lowered her Keyblade as she stared in confusion at the former ruler of Castle Oblivion. “Wait, you’re apologizing? Naminé is off on her own now, but I can pass the message along. It’s just hard to believe after everything I remember from her and how quickly you joined Xehanort in the Keyblade War.”

The man sighed. “I made a lot of mistakes during my time as Marluxia. But now that I am Lauriam again, I can truly feel the weight of those mistakes. I will never claim to be a good person, but I got carried away when I no longer could feel guilt. When all those feelings rushed back, it was overwhelming. I just wanted the feelings to stop, and Xehanort could grant me that and also promised answers for some of my missing memories. I planned on betraying him again, but with how quickly things moved I never had the chance. With this second chance, I thought I would go back to my roots as a common gardener on this world until I could figure out a better way to go about finding answers.”

“Wait, are you the gardener that Elrena ran off with?”

Lauriam gave a forced chuckle. “Why is that something everyone is fixated on? You’d think I’ve done more with my life that would stand out that they wouldn’t have to focus on the story of how I married my wife…”

Kairi blinked in shock. “Wait, married? You and Larxene were married this whole time?”

Lauriam rolled his eyes. “I guess technically yes, although we don’t put nearly as much stock into the institution of marriage as most of the people in this world. It was just a convenient thing to do for what we wanted in our lives at the time.”

Kairi nodded. “Okay, but it’s weird going from seeing the two of you as the people keeping Naminé prisoner to thinking of the two of you as a family…” Suddenly realizing the disturbing implication, she gasped and covered her mouth in shock. “Oh no. Was Zinnia your child?”

Lauriam just stared for a few seconds before letting out an awkward laugh. “If she was, we wouldn’t be having this conversation. I’d likely be racing through the castle killing every single thing here in my grief. No, if you’ll look closely at her, you’ll see Zinnia isn’t a person at all. She’s the prototype of Vexen’s Replica program.”

Kairi more closely inspected the remains of Zinnia and saw that beneath the white hood was long ginger hair framing a completely blank face. Being a Replica at least explained why there wasn’t any blood, darkness, or nothingness around the cut, but it did raise more questions.

“I thought Xion was the first Replica. And why was she able to move if she’s still blank? I thought Replicas needed a heart or at least something similar to be anything more than an empty vessel.”

“Xion was the first  _ successful _ Replica. Did you really think Vexen managed to stumble onto a perfect attempt on his first try? He was a scientist, not a miracle worker. There were countless failed prototypes that either never moved beyond being a mannequin or destroyed themselves in minutes. The attempt before Xion resulted in a Replica that became able to move, but wasn’t capable of holding onto anything resembling sentience. Instead of taking on the appearance of the heart, it became an oversized figure wearing a gray cloak. Even this would shift from being slightly larger than a person to the size of a ship, seemingly at random. However, I found that I was able to control it similarly to a puppet, and this bond meant while the so-called Specter or No. 0 was a failure as a Replica, it still had use to me. It certainly helped me put up a greater fight against Sora in Castle Oblivion than I had on my own.”

“Okay, but why is she so different now than what she was back then? You’re calling her a ‘she’ now but an ‘it’ when you’re using past tense.”

“That’s because I’m beginning to suspect she wasn’t as much of a failure as we previously thought. When I was recompleted again after being freed from Xehanort’s clutches, I began remembering someone. I don’t have much, but this girl was a few years younger than you are. All I remember about her is she wore a white cloak, had red hair, and had some connection to the Bird of Paradise flower. She also must have been someone really important to me, and Elrena has vague memories as well. When I tried to reclaim No. 0, imagine my surprise when the Replica took on the same appearance. This leads me to believe she was operating like Xion did originally as far as absorbing memories to become more human, but on a much slower timescale. Since she may one day become sentient, I decided she deserved a name, and what better name than a flower that means thoughts of an absent friend?”

Before Kairi could respond, Diaval theatrically cleared his throat. “As riveting as this conversation is, I do have much better things to be doing right now. Had I known you were going to ignore me for so long, I would have simply escaped by now.”

Lauriam turned back to the prisoner. “You say that like you have a choice. As soon as these vines sense you creating a dark corridor, they will rip you to shreds even if I’m distracted.”

Diaval chuckled. “Oh, I have no doubt they could, but I’m not about to create a corridor. My mastery of the darkness is far too limited to make corridors without channeling the power of my mistress, and why would I bother diverting her power from the spell I’m currently testing? But your vines have a flaw I’m able to exploit with my own power. They are strong when you are nearby, but weaken without your presence or focus. Get a little distance or a major distraction and a common crow could rip them to—”

A sudden crash rang out behind Kairi, and she turned just in time to see something massive approaching her and Lauriam. She barely had time to raise a barrier before she was sent flying along the bridge away from the castle. As she skidded to a stop, she could finally make out what had hit her—a giant battering ram bearing the Heartless emblem. Looking beyond the new arrival, she saw a flock of crows swarming over the captured Diaval, until they dispersed with no sign of Maleficent’s servant left. With Diaval out of reach, Kairi prepared to attack the new Heartless when Lauriam held out Graceful Dahlia to stop her.

“Leave this to me. I made the mistake of leaving the Infernal Engine bound instead of destroyed, and I’ll rectify that now. Besides, I’m sure there are other people who need help far more than I do.” Kairi’s mind immediately went to Belle and Adam, who she last saw when Gaston had been attacking them. Considering Diaval’s words, Gaston was probably the conduit he was using to channel Maleficent’s power, so stopping the man might just stop any more Heartless from appearing.

Luckily, the number of Heartless appearing in the castle appeared to be slowing down, meaning Kairi didn’t have to worry about too many delays as she rushed back through the castle. After their initial surprise, the members of the Royal Guard seemed to have gathered that they weren’t the best equipped to deal with this threat, so they were focusing on guiding the civilians away from the Heartless and only attacking to drive back some of the more adventurous creatures when they got too close. Kairi eventually found her way to the armory, where the sounds of gunfire and clanging metal told her there was still a fight in progress.

On entering the room, Kairi immediately noticed the three combatants looked much different than they had in the chapel. Belle’s fur was matted with blood and dark ichor in places, and Adam was wearing clawed metal gauntlets that were nearly falling apart. However, the biggest concern was Gaston, whose eyes were now glowing yellow as darkness solidified over his right arm and leg. Clearly he wasn’t being careful with his use of Maleficent’s darkness, and that would make it even harder to stop him without resorting to lethal force.

Kairi announced her presence in the room with a Curaga that washed over Belle and Adam and healed their injuries, but Gaston didn’t seem to pay any attention to the green glow and continued his assault. He charged at Adam with an axe, only for Belle to ram into him and start clawing at the man. However, her swings were more wild flailing than any coordinated assault, and Gaston managed to duck between them before shooting her with his pistol. Unlike when he had initially fired at her during the wedding, this time instead of a single bullet the gun released a shotgun like spray of darkness. While the attack didn’t seem to significantly hurt Belle, she did flinch back before freezing in place as the darkness imitated a Stop spell.

Gaston didn’t seem to care for the opening to attack Belle, as he turned back towards Adam. However, the prince had closed the distance and started slashing at Gaston with his gauntlets. As opposed to Belle’s wild swings, Adam attacked with the focus of a man who had spent years of his life with natural claws as weapons. Unfortunately, he seemed to be over-reliant on his beastly strength, as without it he seemed unable to inflict more than scratches through the dark miasma slowly overtaking Gaston’s body. Kairi could tell neither Belle or Adam would have lasted long against Gaston on their own, but working as a team they were at least keeping themselves alive.

Still, Kairi wasn’t about to see how long the two would be able to fight on their own. Since Gaston had ignored her magic, she decided to be a little more forceful and introduce herself via a Keyblade to the face. She teleported in to continue her combo, only to get shot point blank in the chest. Her armor spared her from any severe damage, but it was still enough to send her reeling back and take this a bit more seriously. Gaston, however, seemed content to downplay her involvement.

“Calling in more backup? Well, you could fill this shop with beasts and it will make no difference. You’ll all fall prey to the land’s greatest hunter eventually!” With that, darkness flowed from his arm into his axe, extending its handle and giving him even more range. He started spinning around the room, slicing through decorative suits of armor with ease as he closed in on Adam. However, Kairi managed to get between the prince and the madman, and her barrier was enough to stop the enchanted weapon. Trying a new tactic, she blasted Gaston with a few balls of Holy magic in an attempt to counteract the darkness. The light cancelled out some of the aura around Gaston, and the man clutched his head in agony.

Kairi hoped this was helping Gaston from crossing the point of no return and completely falling to darkness, so she decided to up the ante and launched her Heart of a Princess Shotlock. With Gaston frozen in place from her earlier assault, he wasn’t able to do anything but take the hits from the rain of light. As he collapsed to the ground, Kairi briefly hoped this would be enough to end the fight and give Gaston time to come to terms with his actions—presumably in the dungeons. However, when the man lifted his head back up she saw his eyes were still yellow, and with a howl he transformed fully into a Heartless. The creature looked similar to a black version of Belle’s current form, although it was more skeletal and had a right arm that was nearly twice as long as its left.

Kairi didn’t have any more time to observe the Heartless before it lashed out at her with its left arm. For looking like something that was half-starved, the bestial Heartless was far quicker than she expected and she barely managed to raise her barrier in time. She was about to counter with her Starcracker ability, but before she could launch the attack the Heartless whipped its other arm around. The elongated limb snapped straight through her barrier and sent her crashing into the wall, where it took her a second to clear her head. This obviously wasn’t going to be a fight she could just hide behind a shield to win, but luckily she was far more mobile than most people.

Kairi cast a quick Cure spell and returned to the fray by throwing her Keyblade at the beast’s turning back and teleporting in to land a few more hits. Instead of finishing her combo, she used her Light Slide to dart out of the way of the Heartless’s claws as it returned its attention to her. Since the Heartless was able to break through her barrier, Kairi instead adopted hit and run tactics of getting a few hits before sliding around or under Gaston’s counterattacks. She could tell her strategy was slowly whittling away at the Heartless when the beast suddenly collapsed to the ground.

The reason for this soon became clear, as Belle and Adam both jumped back from the Heartless’s legs. While Gaston’s Heatless had been focusing on trying to hit Kairi, the two locals had been clawing away at the beast’s legs. Eventually they had managed to damage them enough that the monster could no longer stand, leaving Kairi the perfect opportunity. With the Heartless immobilized, she started laying into its larger arm with Keyblade strikes until she could activate her Lightcharge. The Heartless’s snarls turned from expressions of rage to whimpers of pain as the light-infused Keyblade tore apart its main offense. As her Formchange neared its end, Kairi began her Seven Wishes combination, raining blows across the beast’s face until it finally collapsed into darkness and Gaston’s heart floated away.

With the disappearance of Gaston’s Heatless, Kairi felt the darkness surrounding the castle fade away. However, the nausea from Diaval’s spell remained, and a quick glance at Belle showed she was still trapped in the form of a Beast. The former Princess of Heart glanced around to make sure there weren’t any more enemies before she let out a sigh. Her voice came out as a growl, but the exhaustion was apparent.

“I guess it was too much to hope just beating the Heartless would break the curse. I guess we have to track down the enchantress again just to find out what the nature of the curse is. Hopefully it won’t take giving up the light of a Princess to break this again…”

Adam paused for a second to remove his gauntlets before wrapping as much of her as he could reach into a hug. “Hey, don’t worry about it. You stuck with me through my curse, and I’ll stick with you through yours. Although, we might want to wait until tomorrow to start the search. After all, it would be difficult to get everyone together like this again, so if you don’t mind I’d like to finish our wedding today.”

* * *

The next morning, Kairi found herself drinking her fifth cup of tea as she sat in the dining room with possibly the strangest group she could imagine. On one side of the table sat King Louis and Queen Marie, who looked on the verge of panic after getting a crash course in the nature of the universe when they demanded answers over what the Heartless attack was. It probably didn’t help that they now knew exactly how dangerous the other two members sitting at the table were, considering Elrena and Lauriam were the only two people on the world who had experience living on other worlds and could confirm Kairi wasn’t making everything up.

Even ignoring all the potential dangers the royal family was now aware of, they also had to deal with being exposed to technology far beyond what their world had developed. Kairi had tried calling Master Yen Sid to see if he could offer any insight into curses and how to break them, but the ancient sorcerer didn’t answer. Her next call went out to Merlin, and the wizard promised to come over after he finished working on some repairs in Radiant Garden. Apparently he would need to be present in order to determine the nature of the curse, and that would be vital in knowing how to either lift or circumvent it.

As he explained, “Curses are strange things. They can often react in ways their casters do not intend, and you have to be very careful not to leave too many loopholes. Most people will leave a specific escape clause or termination point to ensure it doesn’t get bent out of shape, but there are some curses that just can’t be revoked. Even with my mastery of time, there are some destinies I cannot avoid, and there can be dire consequences for messing with the flow of time.” The wizard gained a far away look in his eyes and mumbled, “I still will never forgive myself for the fate of Sir Kayley…”

Seeing the look everyone was giving him, Merlin shook himself back to the present. “Sorry about that. Just reliving some bad memories of when I tried to save my protégé from his terrible fate. I ended up creating a world where that wouldn’t happen, but so many problems resulted and I had to doom so many residents of that world in order to stop them from spreading. It’s why I’m not able to use my magic to save Sora—it would be like living with a ghost at the cost of potentially dragging the worlds into destruction.”

Kairi sighed. She was wondering why nobody had brought up using time magic to save Sora, but if even Merlin—who could create a place where time didn’t matter—said it was impossible, she supposed they’d have to keep searching the old fashioned way. At least with the wizard coming to this world, they’d have an expert on hand Kairi felt was more trustworthy than whatever mysterious enchantress had first cursed the Beast for being a brat when he was a child.

After the call with Merlin ended, Kairi had realized another important call she could make while waiting and dialed Ienzo. She felt bad for using the researcher as a middleman, but she didn’t have a direct way to contact Even yet so she tried to do the best she could. She figured as thanks for helping out the least she could do was connect Lauriam with the supplies he would need to repair Zinnia’s body, but she didn’t quite account for the history between the former residents of Caste Oblivion. With how Even, Ienzo, and Aeleus acted to Lauriam and Elrena, Kairi was sure the only way things could get any frostier was if Even was physically present to start throwing around ice magic. At least the hostility served to distract Marie and Louis from their shock at the fact that it was possible to artificially create people in addition to all of the other revelations they were forced to experience.

Luckily, before things could get too tense, Adam practically skipped into the room. The reason for his joy quickly became apparent as Belle strode in behind him—a Belle who no longer was trapped in the body of a Beast. Elrena took one glance at the glowing newlyweds and snorted.

“Well, at least that’s one problem solved. So tell us, how did you break the curse? Was it waiting until the stroke of midnight? How about a wedded couple’s first kiss? Or did you just skip straight to the sexorcism?”

Kairi briefly saw the couple start to blush before she slammed her head into the table. Why did all of this have to happen on her first solo mission?


	6. Kingdom of Dreams

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kairi arrives in Cinderella's world continuing the search for Sora. However, that may become the least of her worries as time twists around her...

Kairi cruised through the Lanes Between on her way to the next world. After all the snags she had run into while visiting Adam and Belle’s world, she had hoped the others would have been a little bit more successful in making progress towards finding Sora. However, that proved not to be the case. Besides recruiting more allies to keep their eyes open and handing out more Gummiphones, all they had managed to accomplish was hitting a massive dead end.

Master Yen Sid had used his magic to determine a clue to Sora’s fate could be found in a world he had recently visited, so Donald and Goofy had accompanied Riku back to the Toy Box. Unfortunately, all Riku got out of it was being constantly compared to a video game character named Yozora, and apart from Rex theorizing that Sora and Riku were somehow characters from a super-secret ending all Riku had to show for the trip was frustration over how difficult some of that game’s bosses were and how he hadn’t been able to beat them to see if somehow Verum Rex did hold the answers. With nothing else to go on, they had been forced to go back to their original plan of just continuing to search.

This led Kairi to her current destination as she went to visit Cinderella’s world. With Terra, Aqua, and Ven still searching the Realm of Darkness, there wasn’t anybody who had actually visited that world, so Kairi figured she was the best choice to scout it out thanks to her meeting with Cinderella in Hollow Bastion. She figured between that, her Keyblade, and the recommendation of the Fairy Godmother she wouldn’t have any issues convincing the rest of the castle’s staff to help her out.

With that in mind, the portal to the world opened and Kairi saw she was on the outskirts of a manor home with the Castle of Dreams rising in the distance. She was about to continue flying towards it when she heard a loud cawing and had to swerve to avoid crashing into a large raven. A second later, she wished she had hit the bird, because it suddenly transformed into a familiar figure wearing a cloak of black feathers. Diaval looked just as happy to see her as she did to see him.

“Really? Of all the times for a Keyblade to appear on the world, it has to be right before the spell is ready? This time, I’m not going to let you interfere!”

Kairi barely managed to transform Destiny’s Embrace back from its glider form in time to block Diaval’s strike with his helix blade. As the two fell to the ground, Kairi tried to push her way through the blade lock but it seemed Maleficent’s servant was able to equal her when it came to pure strength. Hoping to try a different approach, she tried to distract him by talking.

“Well, I guess this explains why we lost track of you back when Lauriam had you captured. Never would have guessed you could turn into a bird and disappear in the flock. But if you don’t mind me asking, what’s got your feathers so ruffled this time? There’s not any curse on this world for you to reinstate like there was last time.”

Diaval rolled his eyes. “Firstly, you need to work on your puns if you think that was clever. Secondly, do you really think this spell depends on a curse? I’m not reactivating anything—I’m twisting time itself. Last time was a proof of concept to show that it could be done, and this time is a little bit more hands on. Thirdly—”

Diaval must have hit some mechanism on the hilt of his sword, as it suddenly split from a double helix to two curved swords. Kairi wasn’t able to react in time to the second weapon and took a darkness-infused slash across her chest, although luckily she was still wearing her armor which managed to protect her from the darkness before she could suffer the same fate as Zinnia. That still didn’t stop the blow from hurting, and Diaval immediately moved in to continue his assault. Luckily for Kairi, his last attack had sent her far enough away that instead of having to block with her Keyblade, she was able to take the attack on her Barrier—and thus able to counter with her Starcracker ability.

Kairi was able to follow up the counter attack with a combination of strikes, entering her Lightcharge before Diaval was able to recover. However, before she could even use the light-enchanted blade, Diaval escaped by virtue of turning back into his bird form, where Kairi wasn’t able to react quickly enough to his smaller size to keep hitting him before he could fly away. To make matters worse, he changed up his mode of attack. While he didn’t seem to be able to launch any attacks while a bird, he would briefly return to his human form before sending orbs of darkness from the sky and returning to being a raven before he could fall too far.

Kairi spent a few seconds focusing on defense before coming up with a counter strategy. If Diaval was so insistent on fighting at range, she’d just have to turn that to her advantage. It wouldn’t be easy hitting a bird out of the air, but if she played this right she wouldn’t have to worry about that. It was time to see if her newest skill worked in a real fight.

Kairi started off her counterattack by throwing her light-infused Keyblade in a Strike Raid with no intention of teleporting towards it, and called down a Thundaga as soon as Diaval swerved to avoid the projectile. While he was able to weave through the lightning bolts, Kairi resummoned Destiny’s Embrace and repeated the cycle. Falling into such a pattern made the drawbacks of relying only on Strike Raids to attack more obvious—there would always be a slight lag between when the Keyblade was dismissed and when it reappeared in its wielder’s hand. Falling into this attack pattern made that more obvious—but luckily, Kairi was counting on just that.

When Diaval seemed to figure out her pattern, Kairi put her true plan into motion. The bird weaved through the flying Keyblade and bolts of lightning before returning to his human form to launch blasts of darkness in the period of time where Kairi was supposedly vulnerable. However, he was so used to seeing the bright flashes accompanying Kairi’s attack that he didn’t seem to notice Way to the Dawn until it hit him in the face. With the initial hit in, Kairi kept tossing both of her Keyblades repeatedly hitting Diaval before he could react. Kairi had developed the skill of Keyblade juggling when she couldn’t figure out how to dual-wield, but realized she could summon a second Keyblade as long as she wasn’t physically touching the first. There weren’t many practical applications for this outside of letting someone else borrow your Keyblade—or being able to unleash a continuous stream of Strike Raids without having to wait to resummon a Keyblade in between.

Of course, even though there was theoretically no end to how often she could hit Diaval with a Strike Raid since each Keyblade hit him faster than he could recover from the previous hit, the repeated throwing did eventually tire Kairi out. Before she could lose the chain, she teleported in after Destiny’s Embrace hit him and finished off with a vicious hit that sent Maleficent’s servant crashing into the ground. Kairi made sure to fling away Diaval’s blades before he could recover and ended by pointing Destiny’s Embrace directly into his face in a clear sign that the fight was over.

Maleficent’s servant’s eyes widened at the magical weapon held between his eyes before he held up his hands in surrender and started chuckling. “I will admit, you have bested me. But there’s a reason Maleficent uses me more for spying than combat, and in the end it doesn’t matter. You may have stopped me, but you were so busy focusing on me that you didn’t disrupt the spell. All it needed was a little bit more time.”

As soon as he finished speaking, Kairi felt the world pitch beneath her as her vision burst into a kaleidoscope of colors. This was even worse than how she had felt back at her first exposure to this spell, and she only barely managed to stop herself from throwing up. She wasn’t sure what this could mean or why the time spell affected her so strongly, but she decided to try something to counteract it. Raising her Keyblade, she called out, “Stop!”

While time magic hadn’t come easily to her, the hasty spell at least managed to slow down the wooziness from the spell and caused the kaleidoscope of colors to stabilize into images she could at least recognize. Considering she recognized the faces of Terra, Aqua, Ven, and Cinderella in most of the scenes, she supposed she was seeing events of the world’s past. However, it seemed like Terra, Aqua, and Ven’s images were fading away while Cinderella and the other residents of the world remained. Any further investigation was cut off by the sound of applause.

Kairi turned to the source to see Diaval smirking wickedly at her. “Bravo, bravo! It’s this kind of meddling that made me really see what our power could do. After all, if the Keyblade is capable of affecting the world order, what happens to the world if you suddenly remove that influence? How would Cinderella have fared if she didn’t have Terra and Aqua to protect her from the Unversed on her trips to the castle?”

Kairi leveled her Keyblade at Diaval and shot a Firaga at him, which he dodged in a flash of feathers. “Oh, I don’t know, but something tells me they’d be fine. If you’re removing all of the work of Keyblade Wielders on this world, you should know that the Unversed only existed because of Vanitas—and he happened to have a Keyblade.”

Diaval seemed to stumble as he took in this information. “Okay, unexpected, but not a major setback. But I suppose I should offer you two revelations in exchange. Firstly, if all Keyblade wielders are erased from this world, then I can think of one who is currently standing here that would be forced to leave. Second, Stop spells are temporary, and you just wasted your last bit of time.”

Kairi felt her magic end just as Diaval finished his sentence, and then with a sudden lurch she felt darkness overtake her as she was flung back into the Lanes Between.

* * *

Kairi hovered just outside of the world and briefly wondered why she was here. She knew she was going out to other worlds to search for Sora, but right now they were specifically targeting worlds their group had already travelled to. She had taken on the role of visiting the worlds of the Princesses of Heart, but why would she end up here? This clearly wasn’t Agrabah, Wonderland, or Beast’s Castle from the coordinates not matching Jiminy’s Journal entries, and even if it was one of the worlds only Terra, Aqua, and Ven had visited this didn’t match up with their descriptions of Enchanted Dominion or the Dwarf Woodlands. So this wasn’t the world of one of the Princesses of Heart, and it also wasn’t Arendelle or Corona where the only known members of the New Seven Hearts lived. So why could she sense a pure light living in the world?

Staring at the world for a few more seconds and trying to feel out more of the light only started causing a headache, but there was also a familiarity to the feeling. It was almost like when her memories of Sora had faded away—she knew she was missing something important, but couldn’t remember the details of what. But there couldn’t be a Princess of Heart down there since all six were…

Kairi gasped as more pieces fell into place. There weren’t only six Princesses of Heart, so why did she only remember that number? Something must have worked to erase that from her mind…

Kairi suddenly grabbed her head as more memories came flooding back. She remembered visiting the world briefly before fighting Diaval, and then his spell that wiped out Keyblades from the history of the world. Apparently, that had some pretty nasty effects on her memories as well. Maybe this is what Sora had felt when he was going through Castle Oblivion—not that he would be able to tell her anything about that time even if he wasn’t missing. Still, she did have one advantage—even if her memory was foggy, her light was able to resonate with the light of the other Princess to fight off the effects of the spell. It wasn’t perfect, but she was slowly getting the memory back. She had a vague image of a woman with brown hair and a blue dress, and knew the name started with Cinder, so she figured that was a solid starting point.

Of course, even if she didn’t have all the details of this princess, she couldn’t just stay out in the Lanes Between while Diaval was lurking about. After all, Maleficent had succeeded in kidnapping the Princesses of Heart before, and if she was still determined to claim Kingdom Hearts as her own it only made sense that she’d go after them again. With a plan in mind, she returned to the world, this time exiting a portal on the coastline. She knew she’d have to be extra careful to avoid meddling with the world since they would have no knowledge of the Keyblade, but luckily nobody seemed to notice her arrival.

Kairi planned on doing a little reconnaissance before announcing her presence just so she would have a better chance of blending into the world, but a sudden commotion on the docks drew her attention. She turned to see a group of soldiers clearing out the various dockworkers that were gathered around a wooden sailing ship. Following behind the initial group were four soldiers practically dragging along a blonde woman in chains. Various bystanders started flocking towards the scene, giving Kairi a perfect opportunity to get closer by blending in with the crowd. From the various jeers, she learned that this woman was a criminal facing exile for something she had done in the palace, although opinion seemed to be divided on whether she was a simple thief or a witch. However, something about the whole situation seemed off to Kairi, as if her heart were telling her something terribly wrong was happening.

Trying to determine what was giving her this feeling, Kairi closed her eyes and tried to let the distractions of the world ebb away. Suddenly, she could place a more distinct name to what she was sensing—the woman in chains also had a heart of pure light, meaning she was the missing Princess of Heart. Suddenly, her being taken away went from being an internal matter of the world to something Kairi would have to interfere with. She wasn’t sure if these soldiers were working for Maleficent, but even if they weren’t directly it would be all too easy for Diaval to whisk away the Princess when she was trapped on a ship.

Still, just because Kairi had to act didn’t mean she could just throw caution to the wind and summon her Keyblade in the middle of a crowd. She’d have to at least attempt to be subtle, so she snuck out of the crowd and back towards the shore. While it would be easy enough to use magic to aid her in boarding the ship, she decided to rely on more mundane skills learned from years of living on Destiny Islands. Sure, she could get in trouble if she was caught swimming out to the ship or climbing the moorings, but it wouldn’t be anything that the people of this world wouldn’t be able to do themselves. Luckily, everyone seemed so focused on the prisoner that nobody noticed her hiding away behind some crates on deck before the ship started sailing off.

Kairi just sat back and waited until the only people around were the guards and the princess. All that was left now was to put her plan into motion. Dealing with the chains would be easy since she had a magic key to unlock them, but the soldiers were a trickier problem. Since they might just be innocents, she couldn’t exactly jump down and start swinging her Keyblade. She’d have to take a more peaceful approach—or at least, a less overtly harmful one. This would have been a perfect time for her to use a Sleep spell, but unfortunately she still hadn’t gotten around to learning how to do that yet. So, she’d have to use a different trick.

Raising her Keyblade, Kairi started focusing all of her ice magic to use a spell she hadn’t used since the start of her training. Back then, when Axel still wasn’t able to summon his Keyblade at will, sparring matches basically involved her trying to fight her way through constant bursts of fire. In an effort to extinguish a particularly wide-spread blaze, she had unleashed a variant of a Blizzard spell that froze Axel—and all the surrounding trees—seemingly winning the fight until Axel just melted his way out. He then explained that the spell she used was one Sora had used in Castle Oblivion, but while Deep Freeze was good at immobilizing large groups of enemies it wasn’t really worth the time it took to charge it considering how little damage it actually did. After Merlin had taught her that Water magic existed, she hadn’t relied on the Deep Freeze spell since.

Of course, now seemed like the perfect opportunity to use it again. After a few seconds of charging, she let the arctic blast loose and instantly froze three of the guards, although the last one managed to be just out of reach of the spell. As the final soldier drew his sword, Kairi launched a Blizzaga at his feet that froze him to the deck.

“Sorry about having to do this, but you’re—”

Kairi had to quickly raise her Keyblade as the soldier shouted “Die, witch!” and threw his sword at her. Of course, unlike most of the enemies she fought this was just a standard sword and not magical in any way, so once the blade clanged to the deck Kairi knew she didn’t have to worry about any further attacks. That didn’t stop the guard from repeatedly cursing at her, so instead of continuing her apology she decided to focus on Cinderella. A quick flourish of her Keyblade later and Kairi freed the other Princess of Heart from her chains, and the blonde woman gave a short bow even though her eyes never left Destiny’s Embrace.

“Thank you for freeing me, but what exactly is that key? I feel like I’ve seen something like that before…”

Kairi smiled. “You have, but it might be best to sit down for a bit. Your memory has been affected by a curse, and I know from recent experience that breaking through that gives you a nasty headache and a dizzy spell.”

Cinderella’s face lit up as she followed Kairi’s directions. “A memory altering curse? That must be why the prince didn’t recognize me! I knew our dance was more than just a dream.”

Kairi’s breath hitched. She hated to be the bearer of bad news, but she didn’t want to build up false hope. “I’m not sure if that’s the case. I was there when the curse was cast, and it only affected things connected to Keyblades. I’m pretty sure you were already married to the prince when we first met in Hollow Bastion. And since Maleficent kept all the Princesses of Heart in stasis once she captured them, it must have happened well before you and Sora interacted. Unless something Terra, Aqua, or Ven did other than fighting the Unversed led to that I don’t think this curse is involved…”

Kairi trailed off as she heard Cinderella whimper in pain as she suddenly clutched her head. Clearly, something she had just namedropped was enough to trigger the reawakening of her buried memories. Since Cure spells couldn’t really help with mental fatigue, Kairi just laid a comforting hand on the older woman’s shoulder and let her ride out the experience.

Eventually, Cinderella managed to take a few deep breaths and raised her head to smile at Kairi. “Wow, Kairi, you weren’t kidding. It is rough suddenly having a year’s worth of conflicting memories dumped on you all at once. Maybe it’s for the best that I was in stasis for nine years and it’s not a full decade…” She shivered a bit before continuing. “Okay, not going to try to look into that too much until I have some time to settle down. Probably safer for my sanity to stick with other topics…”

Kairi nodded. “Okay, how about we start by getting you back to the palace. Maleficent is up to something and her servant is the one that placed the curse to remove the impact of the Keyblade on the world. Something tells me you’ll be a lot safer in the palace than you would be imprisoned on a ship in the middle of nowhere.”

Cinderella’s face fell. “I don’t think I can go back there. My stepmother stole Fairy Godmother’s magic wand and used it to brainwash the prince. I tried to undo the spell, and that’s how I got imprisoned in the first place.” Her voice cracked as tears started falling from her eyes. “I thought I could live my dream if I just followed my heart, but I don’t think I have a choice. He’s gone, and I failed my best chance to fight for him…”

Kairi’s breath hitched and her grip on Cinderella’s shoulder involuntarily tightened. This was starting to sound like an argument she had had with herself before setting out on the journey. She still wasn’t sure if she had put that internal argument to rest, but she wasn’t about to let someone else go down that same path. She let go of Cinderella’s shoulder and tilted the older woman’s face up to her own.

“Do you believe in destiny? Because I know exactly what you are going through. I thought having my own Keyblade meant that Sora would never have to leave me behind again and I’d stop being a burden to him. And then I got a chance to fight alongside him, only to get kidnapped and then killed. But Sora didn’t let that stop him and broke the laws of nature to save me—even though it only meant he had to disappear. He’s gone now, and it’s all because of me—but I’m going to keep fighting. We shared a Paopu fruit, so that means our destinies are forever intertwined. Even if I can’t trust my own heart, I still believe in destiny and refuse to believe he’s gone forever. It’s the same with your prince—I know you were meant to be together, and you were married once for a year. We can make sure the same happens again. We’ll see how well your stepmother’s spell holds up against a Keyblade and get him ba—”

The sound of shattering ice interrupted her rant, and Kairi sprang to her feet with Destiny’s Embrace in hand before she was aware of making any conscious decision. However, once her mind caught up with the reality of her situation she paused. Her Deep Freeze spell had worn off, which meant she was once again surrounded by active enemies. However, these enemies were just regular people that she couldn’t just subdue with extreme force like she could Heartless. She probably wouldn’t have time to cast another Deep Freeze, and while Blizzaga could work as a temporary measure she wasn’t confident she could freeze all three of the active guards without inflicting some serious damage.

Before Kairi could decide on a course of action, a sudden scream and the appearance of a man flying into the sail tore everyone’s attention away from the brewing fight. The dark-haired man managed to control his fall by grabbing onto the rigging and sliding down to the deck. Kairi wasn't sure how he managed to pull that off without extensive gymnastics training, but her surprise was mild in comparison to the other occupants on the boat. The one soldier who was still frozen to the deck shouted out,

“My prince, you must get out of here immediately! That witch has freed the prisoner and who knows what else she could do!”

Kairi scrambled trying to figure out a way to salvage this first impression on the local prince, but she was surprised when the man smiled at her. “Well, it seems I owe you some thanks. I came out here to free the prisoner but it looks like I’m not needed.”

“But sire—”

The prince’s expression immediately hardened as he turned to the complaining soldier. “On what authority was this woman even captured in the first place? Even if she were to become my mother-in-law, Lady Tremaine cannot sentence someone to banishment without a trial. As far as I am concerned, this other woman is correcting a grave injustice. Having the ability to use magic doesn’t make one immediately worthy of contempt.”

As the soldier sputtered for a few moments at the chastisement, the prince turned his attention back to Kairi. “Thank you again for the help, miss. My name is Prince Charming.” Kairi’s eyes widened and the prince started laughing. “Don’t worry, most people have that reaction. My mom had quite the sense of humor.”

With this, the prince walked over to Cinderella and helped her to her feet, intertwining his fingers with hers as he did so. Kairi noticed a slight green glow come over his eyes before it broke, leaving Charming to smile and quip, “Remember me?”

Cinderella must have felt the breaking of the spell too, as she quickly pulled Charming into a hug. The prince spun her around before setting her back on her feet, dropping down to one knee, and pulling out a diamond ring. “I know this might be sudden, but I can just tell this is right. Will you marry me, Cinderelly?”

Cinderella chuckled. “Yes! Although you must have met Jaq and Gus. My name is actually Cinderella—they just call me Cinderelly.”

* * *

Kairi could barely believe how quickly things had moved since the ship. In the span of about an hour, she had gone from freeing Cinderella from chains to helping her into a wedding dress. It was quite possibly the shortest engagement she had ever heard of, although Cinderella didn’t seem bothered. After all, she had already technically married Charming in her memories, and a year of happy marriage was a great sign for this marriage turning out for the best as well. Charming had even taken the revelation of the timeline change in stride, although there had been a bit of a scare when his father had passed out from shock.

Kairi had placed a quick call to Merlin to see if he had any way to undo or at least identify the cause of this particular time reversal spell, but he wasn’t able to provide any answers over the phone. He did promise to visit the world once he finished some business in Radiant Garden, but warned that he wouldn’t be able to directly fix the problem. Apparently mixing different types of time magic could have disastrous consequences, and without being able to get the original caster to undo the spell it would be tricky to figure out exactly how the spell worked in order to safely remove it. Since Cinderella’s stepmother had disappeared with Fairy Godmother’s wand and was the most likely person to have cast the spell undoing Cinderella’s marriage, that meant they would just have to deal with things as they were for now.

Still, since Cinderella, Charming, and the king were all for holding the royal wedding regardless of the magic going around, Kairi found herself being the only human member of Cinderella’s bridal party. Since the king had been a bit overeager to see his son finally marry so he could have grandkids, most of the preparations had already been completed. All Kairi really had to do was help Cinderella into the wedding dress alongside her mouse and bluebird friends. Just as they put the finishing touches to Cinderella’s veil, however, Kairi was glad she volunteered when she heard a voice call out “Bibbity Bobbity Boo!”

Kairi managed to raise her barrier just in time for a burst of green magic to hit it instead of Cinderella. Whatever the spell was supposed to do was nullified by the inherent magic of the Keyblade, leaving the caster of the spell—an older woman in a purple dress—stunned speechless. While Kairi had a fairly good guess as to who this was, Cinderella immediately confirmed it.

“Stepmother? Why must you keep doing this? Even with all your stolen magic, you can’t overcome the love between me and Charming. And now that Kairi is here, you aren’t the only one able to use magic for your own ends. Why can’t you just accept that I will marry the prince and find some happiness in your life without fighting against me?”

Lady Tremaine snarled before she seemed to collect herself. “Very well, I suppose I have no choice. You do look lovely, my dear, and I’m sure the Prince will be quite happy.” Her face then twisted into a smirk. “I suppose I shall just have to accept that you will be the next princess. Anastasia, Drizella, why don’t you come out here? We should take a chance to say goodbye before the Prince marries Cinderella.”

As Cinderella’s two stepsisters entered the room, Kairi wasn’t sure which one drew more attention. One of them had dark hair but the most notable features were amber-colored eyes only a few shades away from Xehanort’s and a right arm that was either fully coated in or completely made of shadow. Anybody who was showing advanced signs of turning into a Heartless was obviously a danger, but her sister might have been more attention grabbing. After all, she was a perfect doppelganger of Cinderella, even down to the wedding dress. As the real Cinderella rushed towards her mirror image, Kairi followed along just to be sure she could intervene if the other sister attacked.

“Anastasia, how could you do this?”

The lookalike at least looked and sounded conflicted about her role in the plan. “I…just wanted what you had. Why can’t I have someone who loves me?”

Cinderella placed her hand on Anastasia’s shoulder. “Everyone deserves true love. But this isn’t the way. Do you even love the Prince?”

Before Kairi could hear Anastasia’s response, the world flashed green and she felt an all-too-familiar lurch in her stomach. She barely had time to berate herself for leaving her back to Lady Tremaine before she was once again a victim of a banishment spell, and when she could finally focus on her surroundings she found herself in a pumpkin patch instead of a castle. There was a horse nearby that was staring at her in confusion for how she had just appeared, but Kairi’s eyes were drawn to a rapidly growing pumpkin in front of her. She wasn’t sure what that would accomplish until a set of vines grabbed her and yanked her backwards, trapping her in a separate pumpkin that must have been growing behind her. Still, if Lady Tremaine thought some enchanted vegetables would be enough to stop Kairi, she obviously had no idea what she was dealing with.

A quick summoning of Destiny’s Embrace and a few slashes later, and Kairi’s pumpkin prison was laying in chunks across the ground. Of course, that had given time for the first pumpkin she spotted to grow to the size of a coach, complete with an unwilling horse reined to it and a strangely cat-like man serving as a driver. Hearing Cinderella’s scream suddenly from within the coach, Kairi prepared to destroy the second pumpkin when a hand clamped around her neck from behind and she felt darkness trying to leech away at her light. As she struggled to free herself, her captor hissed in her ear.

“Mother may not see it fit to let me have all of the power she wields, but nothing says I can’t steal yours! Let Anastasia have the prince—I’m taking all of your magic and that key!” As Kairi struggled to break out of what she assumed to be Drizella’s hold, she saw the coach keeping Cinderella prisoner racing away at a breakneck pace. Knowing she’d have to act quickly to save the other Princess of Heart, Kairi decided to take advantage of this world’s forced ignorance of the Keyblade.

“Fine, just let me go and I’ll give you the Keyblade.” Drizella complied with her request and as soon as she was free, Kairi handed over Destiny’s Embrace. Cinderella’s stepsister flew into the air cackling with glee, only for her face to immediately contort in shock as Destiny’s Embrace disappeared from her hands and reappeared in Kairi’s.

“Sorry, I suppose I should have explained something. Keyblades are notoriously picky over who they’ll let keep them. If you’re willing to give yourself over to darkness, you will have to do a lot of work in order to earn the right to one.”

Drizella responded with a snarl and a massive barrage of darkness-tinted fireballs. Considering Kairi was used to seeing Riku throw around Dark Firagas and the vast majority of her combat experience was sparring with Lea, Drizella’s display was far from impressive. Kairi easily managed to dodge or deflect the attacks, and when Drizella didn’t seem to change her strategy after her attacks only managed to kick up a cloud of dust Kairi sent a blast of Holy magic at her that knocked her out of the sky. The attack wasn’t particularly powerful, but it seemed to stun Drizella as she tried to figure out what to do next. Knowing one of the earliest lessons that got beaten into you in combat training was how to continue fighting after taking a hit, Kairi realized she was facing a complete novice and decided that for all of her potential power, Cinderella’s stepsister was far from a pressing threat. Instead, she transformed Destiny’s Embrace into its glider form and chased after Cinderella. 

However, just as she was coming back into view of the runaway pumpkin, Kairi had to stop her flight as something impacted her glider and sent her spiraling for a few seconds before she could regain control. She spun around to see what had caused that only to notice a barrage of glass arrows flying towards her. She formed a barrier and let the projectiles harmlessly shatter on its surface, but the brief lull gave her attacker time to catch up. Kairi realized she had underestimated Drizella’s resolve--instead of staying back to lick her wounds, she was now rushing through the air with jets of flame shooting out of her feet while her hands held an ornate bow. She was using fire and the trails of dust she was kicking up to create glass arrows which she was able to shoot with surprising speed and accuracy considering the situation.

Realizing Drizella was more of a threat than she initially predicted, Kairi let Destiny’s Embrace fade away briefly and summoned Way to the Dawn before launching it at the attacking maiden in a Strike Raid. While Drizella seemingly had been practicing archery skills before, she hadn’t been practicing her flying and wasn’t able to swerve out of the way of the attack. She was even less prepared when Kairi teleported in with Destiny’s Embrace back in hand and hit a massive blow that sent Drizella crashing to the ground. Not letting up, Kairi transitioned into her Heart of a Princess attack and rained orbs of light on her stunned foe. Wanting to ensure she stayed down, Kairi capped her assault with a burst of Blizzaga spells that left a mini glacier where Drizella had once been.

Confident that would buy her a bit of time, Kairi returned Destiny’s Embrace to its glider form and resumed her race after the runaway pumpkin. Just as she was getting close, she noticed the carriage careening towards a cliff, and tried to get close enough for her Stop spell to take effect and give her the few extra seconds she would need to pull Cinderella out before she crashed into the rocks below. She really could have used the extra range provided by Stopga or even Stopra, but she couldn’t just pull out new spells on the fly. Just as the pumpkin careened off of the cliff, Kairi followed it and prepared to cast the spell when she heard Cinderella’s voice call out, “Kairi!”

Hearing Cinderella’s voice from the cliff behind her was enough to startle Kairi and make her fall off of her glider. Of course, unlike most people Kairi was more than capable of controlling her fall with an Aerial Recovery and then re-summoning her Keyblade glider, meaning the only consequence of her stumble was slight embarrassment. She flew back up to the cliff and landed next to Cinderella, who was sitting on a horse that seemed way too happy to no longer be attached to a cursed carriage. Kairi could only chuckle. “Here I went through all the trouble of trying to save you, and you manage to save yourself before I can. Why don’t you tell me all about it while we head to the palace to make sure you can crash your own wedding.”

Cinderella urged her horse into a gallop while Kairi resumed flying alongside her. As they headed for the castle, Cinderella told her story. “Well, it’s a good thing my stepmother decided to imprison me inside a rotting pumpkin. Once I found the weak spot in the wall, I was able to break out. Then with some help from Jaq and Gus, we were able to unhinge the horse from the rest of the carriage. I had to knock Lucifer—my stepmother’s cat–into a lake so he wouldn’t interfere, but I don’t think we have to worry about him after that. Other than turning him into a human I don’t think he had any special abilities.”

Kairi let out a small sigh. “Well, that’s a relief. I had a bit of a problem with your step-sister, who did have magical powers. I left her in a glacier, and we should probably make sure she’s stopped for good once we stop Charming from marrying the wrong woman. I’m a bit worried about how quickly the darkness was spreading over her, and even without that she had some skill with fire magic and glass weapons that would make her dangerous to the average—”

Kairi quickly spun around and raised a barrier when she felt the presence of something dark rapidly approaching. Her instinctual reaction saved them from taking a hit from the incoming Dark Fira spell, but even with the attack not making it through the resulting explosion was enough to startle Cinderella’s horse into throwing its rider off and galloping away. When the spell faded and Kairi could see its caster, she wasn’t too surprised to see that Drizella had once again followed her. Clearly, she would have to take their fights a little more seriously if she wanted to actually save time in getting to the castle.

Instead of continuing to attack from a distance, Drizella flew forward while conjuring a glowing blade of obsidian. The jagged sword certainly looked imposing, but when Drizella used it to attack Kairi had no problem blocking her swings with her Keyblade. Unlike her apparent skill in archery, Drizella had obviously never used a sword before, leaving her less skilled than Sora, Riku, and Tidus had been even before Destiny Islands first fell to darkness. While Kairi probably would have struggled back when she first started wielding a Keyblade, now she had more than enough combat experience to easily disarm Drizella and knock her to the ground.

Kairi prepared to capitalize on the opening when someone grabbed her Keyblade. She turned towards the source only to see Cinderella shaking her head. “Kairi, let me handle this.” Kairi’s eyes widened in surprise for a second before she stepped aside. After all, this was Cinderella’s world, and Cinderella’s abusive stepsister. If Cinderella wanted the chance to finish things on her own terms, Kairi wouldn’t deny her that opportunity. What Kairi didn’t expect was for the other Princess of Heart to offer her hand to her downed stepsister and apologize.

“Drizella, I’m sorry. All this time, I never realized how difficult I was making things for you. The closer you stand to the light, the greater your shadow becomes, and I was forcing all of you to live with a pure light. Between my light and Stepmother’s growing darkness, you must have felt like there was nothing left for you to carve your own path.”

Kairi’s surprise at Cinderella apologizing despite being the victim of years of abuse was eclipsed by Drizella’s rage. She snarled at her sister, “You think I want your pity?” before reaching towards the offered hand with her shadowy arm. Kairi fully expected her to slap away Cinderella’s hand, but the arm suddenly shot forward and impaled itself into Cinderella’s chest. Cinderella could only gasp in shock as light started flowing out of her and absorbed into her stepsister, but even with the infusion of light Drizella became completely lost in shadow and the golden eyes of a Heartless were soon the only thing showing any trace of light. Kairi flourished Destiny’s Embrace and prepared to strike the Fell Maiden down when Cinderella grabbed the arm impaling her and unleashed a massive burst of light. While the Fell Maiden had been absorbing a small stream of light, this was like an ocean suddenly pouring into existence. Kairi had to shield her eyes even as the light resonated with her own and reinvigorated her, but the same couldn’t be said for the Heartless. When the glow finally faded to tolerable levels, Kairi only saw Cinderella who looked ready to pass out on her feet.

A quick cast of Curaga at least stopped the bleeding from her chest and seemed to give the other Princess of Heart a little bit of strength back, even though she still looked like she was about to be sick. “No, I didn’t...I just wanted a chance to have a loving family. And now I killed her!”

Kairi could tell the other woman was on the verge of a panic attack, but wasn’t sure of the best way to calm her down. After feeling like such a burden to Sora and Riku that she devoted herself to learning to fight so she’d never be helpless again, she knew her path wasn’t anything like that of a dedicated pacifist. However, she could at least offer some hope.

“She’s not dead in the typical sense--when a Heartless is destroyed, the heart is released. If she had a strong will, she could have created a Nobody and when the Nobody is destroyed Drizella will be recompleted.” The explanation didn’t seem to help, so Kairi quickly switched to a new tactic. “Also, the power of the Princess of Heart can do strange things to a Heartless. I managed to restore Sora to a human form with my light, so your light might do the same to her.” That finally seemed to get through to Cinderella, and Kairi felt a little bit guilty for leaving out certain details like the fact that Kairi still had no idea how she had managed to do that for Sora or the fact that if this light worked the same way Drizella should have appeared right away instead of being gone. It was misleading, but Kairi knew if Cinderella broke down now over losing one family member she’d miss the opportunity to stop herself from losing Prince Charming.

While it wasn’t the best approach to fully dealing with trauma, Kairi knew that throwing herself into action was the way that was working for her to somewhat cope with Sora’s disappearance and hopefully having a goal would help Cinderella cope with her own issues for the moment until she could get someone a bit more qualified to actually help. It certainly got the other Princess of Heart back on her feet, and with only a brief delay for Kairi to lend her the dress Chip had given her to replace her own torn outfit the two Princesses both hopped on Kairi’s glider and flew to the palace.

Judging by the emptiness of the palace grounds when they arrived, Kairi knew they would be cutting it close. Hopefully this just meant everyone was gathered for the ceremony and not that it had already started. Unfortunately, the lack of people didn’t extend to the guards outside the palace door. The two soldiers immediately jumped when Kairi and Cinderella landed in front of them and started sprinting towards the entrance, and Kairi was already starting to channel Blizzard magic to stop them from interfering. Just when she was about to launch the spell, however, the two guards stood aside and let them pass. Not wanting to stop and question something working in her favor, Kairi didn’t pause in her sprint but did manage to hear one of the guards call out, “Sorry about that business on the boat!”

Kairi wasn’t sure if that guard had been one of her targets back then or if word of her abilities had spread, but she didn’t particularly care to figure it out when they were on a deadline. As the sprinted down one of the hallways of the palace, the indistinct muttering she was hearing from the chapel gave way to what was recognizably Charming’s voice saying “I do.” Those two words turned what was already a sprint into the equivalent of running for their lives, and Kairi supposed the extra desperation was the only thing letting Cinderella keep up with her since the older woman didn’t have the benefit of stamina training as part of a regimen to become a Keyblade wielder. The two rounded the last corner and could see the doors to the chapel, but the words floating through them made the view more of a taunt than a relief.

“–take this man to be your lawfully wedded husband?”

Hearing Cinderella barely able to breathe next to her made the sound of Cinderella’s voice—or more accurately, the transformed Anastasia's voice—coming through the door even stranger. “I...don’t.” The admission seemed to shock Cinderella into a sudden stop, but Kairi continued running into the chapel just in time to see Lady Tremaine storming towards her daughter while brandishing Fairy Godmother’s wand.

“Spoiled little ingrate! I’ve given you everything you’ve ever wanted Anastasia!”

“But mother, I just want someone who will love me for me, and not for being someone else…”

Lady Tremaine snarled and conjured up a vortex of green magic that blocked out the ceiling of the chapel. “Love? Don’t make me laugh. Only a fool would seek that. But if you insist on dedicating your life to a wild goose chase, I suppose I can help you. Bibbidi-Bobbidi-Boo!”

A bolt of lightning crashed down towards Anastasia, but it never hit its target. Tremaine’s speech had bought Kairi enough time to throw Destiny’s Embrace to the altar and teleport in time to raise a barrier and deflect the spell harmlessly into one of the nearby bouquets of flowers, which turned into geese on impact. While the transfiguration spell was likely not too harmful if it could be reversed, Kairi knew she’d have to stop Lady Tremaine before she turned more of Fairy Godmother’s magical prowess into something dangerous. A quick blast of Holy magic knocked the wand out of Tremaine’s hand, and with the King calling in the royal guard it seemed like that would be the end of the fight.

However, Lady Tremaine didn’t seem to care that she had been disarmed. “That wretched light! You’re just like  _ her! _ I refuse to let my plans be ruined by another one of you!” The noblewoman was suddenly surrounded by darkness as she finally succumbed to her jealously, and the remaining magic in the air from her last spell crashed back into its host. When the magical explosion cleared, Lady Tremaine had been replaced with her Heartless. Kairi was a bit surprised at how humanoid it looked--it wasn’t quite on the level of Xehanort’s Heartless that could easily be mistaken as a human, but apart from the chalky white skin and featureless yellow eyes it resembled an old woman in a black dress more than a cartoonish monster.

Still, from experience fighting Xehanort Kairi knew humanoid Heartless could be the most dangerous, so she was ready to raise her barrier at the slightest hint of an attack. She didn’t have to wait long as Lady Tremaine’s Heartless thrust her left arm forward, summoning a stream of dark magic that transformed into chains arcing with black electricity as it sped towards Kairi. While her guard managed to stop the attack, Kairi could hear the barrier groaning under the strain of the continued assault. She knew she’d have to dodge out of the way when her barrier either shattered or she simply let it fade away, but before she could the sound of a Dark Corridor opening distracted her and she turned to see a small portal had appeared within the confines of her barrier. Then a bolt of purple energy crashed into her right arm, and she wasn’t sure if the shattering sound she heard was her barrier or her bones.

Before Kairi could even scream from the broken arm, the lightning hit her through the shattered barrier and started frying her to a level of agony that she could barely whimper. She was sent skidding across the floor for half the length of the room before the full-body agony stopped and the pain in her arm became the only thing she was dealing with. She cracked her eyes open to say Way to the Dawn had sprang into her left arm and was blocking the darkness-infused attack with more success than Destiny’s Embrace had. She wasn’t sure if she had unconsciously called for it or if it had come to her of its own will, but at least it had worked to keep the attack off of her. She still went sliding back across the floor until her back crashed into the wall adding another injury to the list, but she somehow managed to keep her hold on her Keyblade to keep the lightning off of her.

She wasn’t sure how much longer she would be able to hold out, but she heard Cinderella cry out and a massive flash of light signified the other Princess of Heart channeling her power. Kairi wasn’t sure if it actually did anything more than distract the attacking Heartless, but it did stop the attack that was pinning her down and gave her the time she needed to cast Curaga. She was nowhere near Aqua’s level to be able to heal broken bones, but the spell at least stopped the bleeding and numbed the pain. It would mean a more difficult healing process later, but it would let her continue the fight if Cinderella needed help.

As Kairi turned her attention back to the battle, she saw Cinderella was currently locked in a stalemate with the remains of her stepmother. In lieu of having any practical combat training with her magic, Cinderella was just unleashing a continuous burst of raw power using her light. The constant attack seemed to be burning away at Lady Tremaine’s Heartless, but she was countering by repeatedly lashing out with shadowy chains and tendrils. Each hit on Cinderella would cause the light to briefly fade in intensity until the attack burned away, but Kairi wasn’t sure how long the stalemate would hold. Using such a spell seemed to be far more draining on the Princess than the Heartless’s attacks were, so Kairi wanted to tip the scales before Cinderella’s stamina gave out.

Of course, good intentions could only carry you so far in a battle. Kairi managed to hit one of the larger tendrils of darkness with a Strike Raid, but when she teleported in she realized a major problem. While she had practiced throwing a Keyblade left-handed so she could pull off her Keyblade juggling, she hadn’t practiced any other combat. Thus, when she teleported in to continue her combo, she ended up with her useless right arm in position to grab Way to the Dawn. By the time she crossed her left arm over and grabbed the hilt of the weapon, the dark tendril had recovered and wrapped around her. Kairi hissed in pain as it squeezed her broken arm, but then it reared back and slammed her into the ground. Kairi’s world fell away to pain with only a small pinprick of light in a sea of blackness, and she could barely reach her good arm towards that light before the darkness consumed her and she knew no more.

* * *

A gentle shaking of her shoulder brought Kairi back to the waking world. She cracked her eyes open to see the smiling face of a kindly old lady.

“Welcome back, my dear. Thank you so much for helping stop that Heartless.”

Kairi groaned as she tried to shake off the cobwebs by rubbing her eyes--only to realize she was using her right arm to do so. Considering last she remembered that had been broken by Lady Tremaine’s Heartless and then further abused by being slammed into the ground, the fact that it was moving at all was a shock. Unable to fully articulate her confusion, Kairi just sputtered out, “What happened?”

The matronly woman helped Kairi up to her feet with a chuckle. “Well, I know some things, but I just got here a little bit ago. I made sure to fix you and Cinderella up, but I’m going to have to do a little bit more work to clean up the rest of the castle. Why don’t you and Cinderella talk with Anastasia here while I take care of that?”

The woman then began waving a wand through the air, with white sparkles flying throughout the castle. Kairi guessed that this was Cinderella’s Fairy Godmother, and decided to follow her advice. Turning her head, she saw Cinderella was getting helped off of the ground by a redheaded woman who must have been the now de-transformed Anastasia. However, after a quick double-take Kairi couldn’t take her focus off of the left hand of the presumed stepsister–a hand that was currently clasped around the hilt of Destiny’s Embrace.

She must have made some noise to indicate her shock, as Anastasia quickly started running towards her. She skidded to a stop a few feet in front of Kairi and bowed her head while presenting the Keyblade. “I’m sorry I took this from you, but I just grabbed the first thing I saw that I thought could help. You can have this back now–I don’t deserve this.”

Kairi reached out to take her Keyblade back, then paused. “You said you thought it could help? How long was I out, and what did you do with it?”

The redhead spluttered as she tried to rush her explanation. “Well, you can’t have been out more than a couple minutes. I saw you fight that thing that used to be mother with this key, and then when you got grabbed I just grabbed it off of the ground and tried hitting the tentacles with it. I must not have done a good job with it because I still heard you scream real bad. Then you must have grabbed Cinderella because the crazy light show got super bright and the dark thing just disappeared. You and my sister were both passed out, but I managed to find that grandma’s wand and get her back here to fix things.”

Kairi couldn’t help a small chuckle as she reached out and wrapped her hand around Anastasia’s which was still clutching Destiny’s Embrace. “Thanks for the help. Don’t worry about how you did with this–I had no idea what I was doing when I first held a Keyblade either. And if you really have held onto this for more than a few seconds, you DO deserve to hold a Keyblade. They can read into people’s hearts, and won’t let someone they don’t find worthy hang onto them. Someday, you might be able to use a Keyblade of your own.”

Kairi wasn’t prepared for the other woman to let out a sob, drop Destiny’s Embrace, and pull her into a hug, but she did her best not to fall over under the sudden movement. She returned the hug for a few seconds until she heard a man loudly clearing his throat over them. Kairi pulled out of the embrace to see the king standing over them, with Charming and Cinderella walking over behind him.

“Well, young ladies, I don’t think I quite understand everything that’s going on, but it seems like the kingdom owes you both a great deal. Thank you for saving everyone here.”

Before Kairi could respond, the Fairy Godmother returned. “Well, that should have cleaned up everything from this rampage. Just give me a moment and I’ll be able to undo the spell that sent us through time in the first place and we’ll all be back the way we should be.”

Kairi could only blink in shock and quickly scan the now pristine chapel. If the Fairy Godmother was able to magically restore everything this quickly, how powerful was she? She didn’t have time to ask as the woman started saying her incantation to cast a spell, but Cinderella was able to react more quickly.

“STOP!” The shout was enough to cause the Fairy Godmother to stumble, but she was able to catch her wand before she dropped it. With everyone within earshot turning to Cinderella, she started explaining her outburst. “Do we have to go back to the way things were? Sure, I loved being part of Charming’s family, but I had to lose my old family to get that. This time around, I still have a sister, and I’d rather not lose her again.”

Anastasia started sobbing and pulled her stepsister into a crushing hug, while the Fairy Godmother looked at Cinderella conflicted. “Are you sure? There are dangers to leaving such strong spellwork in place. The stronger the spell, the worse the repercussions, which is why I can only use my powers for certain situations. Is this really what you choose?”

Cinderella smiled. “I’ll deal with whatever happens. My heart is telling me that this is the right choice to take, and I’m not going to doubt my heart ever again.”

As the Fairy Godmother nodded and the Grand Duke started pulling everyone together so the royal wedding could continue, Kairi couldn’t help but focus on Cinderella’s words. If she could be so confident in what her heart was telling her, maybe it was time for Kairi to do the same. Somewhere in her heart there had to be a connection that led to Sora, so maybe it was time for her to stop searching the worlds and instead start looking deep within her own heart…


	7. Epilogue: Scala ad Caelum

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Across his many lives, Xigbar has found the greatest enemy to be boredom. So of course he's happy to pieces of a new game move into place...

Xigbar sighed as he warped his arrowgun’s bullet directly into what passed for a brain of the charging bear, causing it to dissipate into harmless motes of light millimeters before it could maul him with its claws. With that taken care of, he turned towards Aced.

“Hey, Goldilocks! You might want to get better control over your creations. Sure, this world might be abandoned, but there are still some things I’d rather not see destroyed here even if there aren’t people to get hurt.”

The burly Foreteller snapped back. “Well, Luxu, maybe if you helped us try to decipher the Master’s notes on how to create spirits we wouldn’t have to go through so many flawed attempts until we succeed. You certainly had enough time.”

Xigbar rolled his eye. Sometimes he missed the fun of bouncing off of Xehanort’s Organization where everyone had their own agendas instead of being back with the original Foretellers. “As if. You got to take the nice short path to get to this point in time. I had to go through countless lives to get here. I tried going through all of the Master’s notes once and it almost drove me insane and would have ended my role. To keep myself able to achieve that, I had to make some sacrifices. Sometimes to keep sane, you just have to do some things like put off certain research, find out exactly how many cups of coffee you can drink before you overdose on caffeine, ignore the witch siphoning off some powers for her own ends, or convince a whole school that your boyfriend is dating a cryptid living in the sewers.”

Aced’s eyes lit up and Xigbar thought he had picked up on the important thing he had mentioned, but the ursine-masked man’s words brought nothing but disappointment. “Wait, boyfriend? I thought you had a thing for Ira’s sister?”

Since just hanging his head wouldn’t quite convey the level of disappointment he was feeling, Xigbar opted to stand sideways on the air and then let his entire body hang down. “Seriously? Did you even listen to my story? Sure, I had to be more cryptic than usual to prevent some of the details from ever getting out, but I’m not Luxu anymore. It’s not like I just take over a new body every time the old one dies. Some part of me remains, but each life is a new me. I’ve been just about every gender and sexuality there is, since each time I’m a different person.” Unable to resist, Xigbar added with a chuckle. “And just so you know, if you want to ask me about my current sexuality, you won’t get a straight answer.”

Aced just growled before turning away. Xigbar just sighed and returned to the ground. At least Tiger and Poppet had had a good excuse for being so clueless since they were basically toddlers. Sure, only the Master could compete with him when it came to mental age now, but he had hoped his old compatriot would at least be somewhat more mature. Still, once everyone got their spirits sorted out, things were bound to become more interesting. Unable to resist the temptation, he pulled out No Name and cast a spell that let him leech off of the power of the Gazing Eye and glance into other worlds that the Master was currently observing.

* * *

_ A redheaded woman stood practicing with a wooden sword, ineffectually flailing against some straw dummies. She seemed about to give up until a man walked by, set down a basket of bread, and approached her. “Hey, don’t worry about it. Would you like some help? I always wanted to be a knight when I was growing up, so even though I’m only a baker I might be able to pass on some of the basics.” _

* * *

__ _ Another redhead, this time with far more combat training and her own Keyblade, talking with some researchers as she prepared to enter a long sleep and search for answers deep inside her heart. _

* * *

__ _ A blonde artist in an empty white room, torn between her need to create a painting to find her lost friend and her desire to wield a Keyblade and fight alongside a silver-haired master. _

* * *

__ _ A black-haired woman pulling a wounded blonde man into a hug in the rubble of their childhood home, hoping that he would eventually be able to move on from the constant stalemate of fighting against a one-winged angel that was the embodiment of his own demons. _

* * *

__ _ A brown-haired Keyblade wielder falling to his knees as a man with a red and a blue eye approached him. “Sorry, but I don’t lose.” _

* * *

Xigbar smiled. Things were certainly going to be interesting...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks to everyone for sticking through this story to the end! I hope I was successful in giving Kairi a chance to shine before she goes into her year-long sleep (well, a little bit less than a year but close enough that Riku would still say she's been asleep for a year during the Limit Cut episode). She'll definitely be back in the action after we hit Melody of Memory, but I've got a few ideas I want to cover in the interim. Not sure when that will be posted since I'm still in the planning stages, but I will greatly appreciate any feedback you have!


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